Daniel's Daughter
by Nanari
Summary: Yes, it's been done before, but I felt the need to set down my take on it. Take one average teenager, one slightly insecure archeologist, said archeologist's rather odd friends, and throw them together. Needless to say, hijinks ensue. Season 10.
1. Prologue: In the beginning

Cordelia's mother Harmony Silverglade grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, and went to college at Chicago University with Daniel. They went out for less than a month, slept together once, and after breaking up never spoke more than a few words to each other, just "hi" as they passed in the halls. A few weeks after the breakup, she dropped out of school, and none of Daniel's acquaintances knew why, not that he pursued the matter.

Life went on:

Daniel met Sarah Gardner

Harmony went home, told her parents she was pregnant, and said she wanted to raise the child as a single mother. When they asked who the father was, she refused to tell, insisting that the child was her responsibility, and that the father of her child did not know of its existence and had no need of that knowledge. They pressed her, and finally got a name, but she refused to let them contact the man, withholding phone number, address, or anything else which might help them locate him.

When her daughter was born, Harmony wanted to leave a blank in the place of the father's name on the birth certificate, but her parent's wouldn't allow it and told the doctors what name to put down.

Once home from the hospital and reassured of their daughter and granddaughter's health, Mr. and Mrs. Silverglade conceded to their daughter's wishes, and the name of the child's father was never spoken again.

Cordelia grew, as children do, and began asking questions. Her mother told her, patiently, and repeatedly, that there was no "daddy" and never had been. After awhile, Cordelia stopped asking.

She lived with her mother in a small house, which always needed repairs. They lived near her grandparents, who were often over, babysitting and taking care of her to give her mom a break every now and then.

So, fatherless though she was, Cordelia had a happy childhood, full, of course, with the ups and downs that come with growing up. When she was 8 or 9 she went through a phase of looking at all the grown-up men around her and trying to imagine which one was her dad, or most like her dad. In Junior High she wondered why her mom hadn't remarried, or why she didn't date like the other kids' moms did who weren't married. But the answer was the same as it had been when she was younger. "You don't need a father, I don't need a man to make me complete! We're doing fine on our own." And Cordelia had to admit, she was just as normal as her friends, whether they had a mom and dad and siblings, or two pairs of parents after a divorce or, in the case of her friend Tyler, no parents at all, just grandparents and an unusual uncle. (Later it was discovered that the uncle was actually Tyler's father, who had a drug problem and wasn't allowed custody.)

Delia entered high school and everything changed. Not having a father suddenly seemed much less important. Besides new pressures from classmates and peers, and in addition to the changes her own body was going through, Cordelia also had to deal with something no child should ever have to face.  
At 15 years old, just as she began to get used to the idea of being a sophomore in high school, Cordelia's mother died during heart surgery. For years they had known about her mom's bad heart, it was a congenital defect, and Cordelia had been tested for it with negative results. In the fall, Harmony had started noticing her heart was acting up, and went to see a doctor who told her that she needed surgery. On November 19th, Harmony Silverglade died on the table despite the medical staff's best efforts.

Cordelia went to live with her grandparents, and struggled on. She got plenty of sympathy from her friends and classmates, even the teachers, so her grades didn't suffer too badly. For a while she turned to guys for comfort, and went through a period of many short lived "romances." She missed her house, and she really missed her mom, but living with her grandparents, who really had helped raise her, was not too bad, and in a few years she managed to work through her grief and start thinking of the future. She graduated from high school and was looking for a job when her grandfather told her she had to leave, that she was on her own.  
He insisted that if they'd had any other options, they would take them, but there were no options at all. Only one truth: her grandmother had early onset senile dementia, and had to be placed in a nursing home. Cordelia had noticed the changes, but when the first signs appeared, she had been too involved with her own grief in dealing with the loss of the only parent she'd ever known to notice. With the news, her grandfather also told her she'd have to find somewhere else to live, since in order to get her grandmother the proper care at a reputable nursing home, they would have to sell the house. Cordelia, shocked by the first bombshell, numbly accepted that if she had thought her world changed by the death of her mother, it was now to be turned on its head.

The next few weeks passed in a surreal blur to Cordelia. She made arrangements to stay with a friend over the summer, and helped her grandfather pack things away for storage and move things to the small apartment at the Happy Acres Assisted Living Care Center, where her grandparents would likely spend the rest of their days.

She job hunted to the best of her abilities, but in a small town they were hard to come by if you wanted anything more than a part time, minimum wage job that lasted longer than a month. After many applications, several interviews, and a brief stint as a secretary's assistant (now there was an interesting experience, and one that taught Cordelia to never, ever, ever, go commando at work especially if you worked at a desk….), Delia found herself unemployed and once again about to be homeless. It was nearing the end of August and the friend she had been living with was getting ready to leave for college. Delia felt bad enough for encroaching on their hospitality for nearly 3 months without paying rent, and now with her friend leaving she knew she couldn't continue on this way. She broached the subject first with her hosts, and though she expected it, it still hurt to see the brief flash of relief cross their faces as she announced she would be leaving after Sierra went to college. When they asked her where she planned to stay, and if she had a job lined up yet, Delia replied with evasive non-answers and changed the subject. Truth be told, she herself had no idea, and in between odd jobs and job interviews, much of her time was spent puzzling over that very problem. Perhaps it was this constant worry that started the chain of events which would ultimately cause one more world stopping transformation to rock Cordelia's shaken up life.

Cordelia got into her car and in one fluid motion, turned the key in the ignition, and shut the door. _I can't believe they don't have any positions open! _At McDonald's, of all places, she couldn't get a job. _This sucks! _ She thought, as she pulled out into traffic. _It's the end of the August, I'm 18, practically 18½, I should be having the time of my life! Not worrying about where I'm going to be living next week! Or how-_ She had a few savings from the odd jobs she'd been doing, and she knew her grandparent's would chip in if they could, but with the high cost of the nursing home and medical bills too, she knew that wouldn't be much. As for her friends, well, they would help if they could, she was sure of that, so she made sure she didn't let on to just how desperate her situation was. Leia and Mel were gong to the community college just outside the city limits, but they decided to live on campus, and it didn't sit well with the morals Delia'd had drilled into her from childhood to stay with their families and not pay rent. _You just can't stand to take charity from anyone,_ she said to herself. _All that talk of being independent…_

As if cued by the concept of relying on no one but one's self, a car slammed square into the passenger side of Cordelia's vehicle. In her distracted state, Cordelia had neglected to fasten her seatbelt, and Finagle's Law of Perversity which seemed to be everywhere in her life had dictated that on this trip, the only time she wasn't wearing her seatbelt, she would get into the first, and most serious car accident she had had in nearly two years of driving experience.

It was a t-bone collision at a three-way intersection. Nearly a textbook case, the other driver had been speeding, and Cordelia had anticipated the green light in her inattentive and irritated state, and had started forward before the light actually turned. When a car who's trying to make a yellow light, and a car who's impatient for a green one meet, it's rarely, if ever, a good thing, or even a thing which will end well after much initial badness. In this case, witnesses say they expected to find one survivor at maximum, and that one in bad shape. The Emergency Response personnel were thus presently surprised to find both drivers alive, though Cordelia, had she been conscious, would have been less please by it, seeing as being dead surely would have hurt less than having a bruised collarbone, broken arm, and bruised ribs, not to mention the concussion, in addition to many small cuts.

When she woke up in the hospital many hours later, her greatest concern, after the initial nausea and discomfort had passed, was, once again, money. _How on earth am I ever going to pay for these medical bills!_


	2. A phone call and then some

A/N: I have about half of the story already written, so I'll upload a new bit every couple of days. Not really sure where I'm going, so just bear with me as we go on a journey of exploration! Or something like that.

* * *

Daniel was in his office, working on a translation. He happened to glance up and saw his extra pair of glasses looking at him balefully from a stack of books."What? Just because I felt it wouldn't hurt to get a pair of glasses that look more respectable, and make me look less like a crackpot professor who talks about alien landing pads…" He trailed off as he realized what he was doing.

"Talking to yourself again, Jackson?" Remarked Lieutenant Colonel Cam Mitchell, as he walked into the office.

Daniel was saved from answering by the ring of the telephone. _Saved by the bell indeed!_ There really had been no good way to explain that one. _If Jack ever got word that I was talking to my _glasses_, I'd never hear the end of it!_ "Daniel Jackson."

Cam made himself at home in Daniel's vacated chair, absentmindedly playing with the pen, abandoned in the rush for the phone, and spinning it on his fingers.

"Yes, how did you get this number?...Yeah, okay…. I'm sorry, you must have the wrong Daniel Jackson….Doctor, I think I would know if I had a daughter! ...you must be mistaken…"

As he eavesdropped on Daniel's conversation, Mitchell's curiosity was piqued. _"Daughter?!_" mouthed Mitchell in shock.

Daniel turned away from Cam with an irritated frown and focused on what the person on the other end of the phone line had to say. Aware of Mitchell's interest, Daniel directed his part of the conversation towards the wall, and Cam was unable to hear exactly what else was said. As soon as Daniel hung up the phone, he was all over it.

"Jackson, is there something you haven't been telling us? A daughter, eh? Got any hot sisters stashed away somewhere?"

"Cam, shut up." Daniel had that look on his face which meant he had just come to an unpleasant, but inescapable, conclusion about something.

"Come on, Daniel! Ya gotta give me something here!" Cam pleaded when he realized Daniel had no intention of revealing the content of the phone call.

Daniel turned away from the bookcase he'd been staring at while he thought, and fixed Mitchell with a deadly serious look, the sort usually reserved for staring down goa'uld with god complexes. "Mitchell, I promise I'll tell you what's going on when I know more. But for the time being…say one word of this to _anyone_, and so help me Cam……make sure to give my regards to Apophis when you see him in hell!" And with that he turned and walked, or perhaps stalked if Daniel Jackson were capable of stalking, out of the office leaving Cam to sit in stunned silence among the books, artifacts, and the incomplete translation. Daniel's spare glasses stared reproachfully at him.  
"What? How was I supposed to know it'd piss him off like that?"

General Landry sat at his desk reading a report of Sg-9's latest mission. The premier diplomatic team had had little luck trying to reason with those who followed the Orii, and had recently been forced to move Sg-11's research station off of a planet converted by the priors, despite their best efforts at a compromise.

A brief rap at the door caused him to look up. "Yes?"

"Sorry to disturb you General, but if you got a second…"

"Dr. Jackson, please come in. Any disruption is welcome at this point; one can only read so many reports…"

Daniel grimaced in sympathy. "Yeah, Jack always said that was the worst part of the job…" In a lower voice he added, "Worst, that is, not counting having to send men and women to what potentially could be their deaths…"

Landry heard the quiet comment, and a short moment of respectful silence followed.

"But, I'm assuming you did have a purpose in coming besides simply to give me a moment's respite from all this paperwork."

"Uh, yes, sorry. I actually wanted to see you to, ah, request a few days of personal leave…"

Landry stared. Whatever he'd been expecting to hear, it wasn't this. "Excuse me? Did I hear you correctly, you're requesting leave?"

"Yes, sir. I mean, I know it's kind of short notice, but I-"

Landry interrupted him. "You do realize that you may be the first member of Sg-1 to _ever_ request leave of your own violation?"

Daniel stopped, taken aback. "Um… I can honestly say I did not think about that."

"Of course you can have a few days. Son, I'll bet you've got enough vacation saved to take a month or two off if you wanted."

"Thank you, but all I need is three days. I just have to take care of a few…family…things."

"Nothing bad, I hope?" Landry asked, hiding the thrill of alarm that went through him at Daniel's mention of family. "No one died, I hope?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Daniel smiled in what was supposed to be a reassuring way, but even though Landry had only worked with the man for a few years, he could see the tenseness in his features which belied the intent of the grin.

"Well, I'll let the rest of SG-1 know, and give them some down time too. Heaven knows you guys deserve it."

"Thank you very much."

"You're welcome, Dr. Jackson. See you in three days."

Through the grapevine that is the SGC, it took only a matter of hours before everyone knew that Dr. Jackson and SG-1 was on stand down, due to Daniel's request of leave. Cameron Mitchell managed to control himself and didn't reveal why, at least not to anyone besides the rest of Sg-1. And what Sam and Teal'c knew, Jack knew as well. The bond with his former teammates was as strong as ever, though the many miles between Washington, D.C. and Colorado Springs made it harder to spend time with them.

And so it was, that as Daniel got off the plane at Logan International Airport, he found Jack waiting for him.

"Jack, what-? How?" Daniel was completely surprised. So wrapped up in his own reflections –How on earth had he had a daughter for 18 years and not know about it? - that the thought of what his friends were doing had never even crossed his mind.

"Daniel! Nice to see you too!" The O'Neill trademark grin on his face, Jack gave Daniel a hearty pat on the back, and guided his bewildered friend to the car and driver he had requisitioned.

Daniel had yet to regain the use of his vaunted language skills, and focused on not losing his luggage as he mutely followed his friend through the crowd, and proceeded to load his bags into the trunk of the car.

"So, word is, you're a father! Congratulations!" Jack had missed his archeologist. Pissing off aides and co-workers at the Pentagon never was as entertaining as tormenting Daniel.

"Jack-" Daniel sat next to his friend in the back seat of the car, and sighed. "I even remember her mother, Jack. As far as I know, none of my relationships…I didn't… None of them said _anything_!" Daniel struggled to form his thoughts.

"Hey, hey Danny boy, breath! It'll be okay." Jack put a reassuring hand on the back of Daniel's neck. The familiar weight helped Daniel get a grip on himself, and he sighed deeply.

"Wait a minute, how do you even know about my, my daughter?" The word felt far more foreign on his lips than any alien phrase ever had.

"Sam told me."

"She did? How does _she_ know? Don't tell me everyone knows about this!" Daniel was not pleased by the thought.

"Oh, Mitchell told her he'd heard something about a 'daughter' and had to share it." Jack had his "innocent" face on, but Daniel could practically feel his glee radiating out.

"I swear, I am going to _murder_ him…or maybe I'll just get Teal'c to do it-" Daniel started to rant.

"Don't worry, he only told Sam and Teal'c."

"Teal'c too! At least he didn't tell Vala."

"Yet."

Daniel forced himself not to swear, and tried to calm himself, getting back to the imminent problems of food and shelter. Due to the short notice, he hadn't had time to reserve a hotel. "Jack, where are we going? And, for that matter why the hell are you here? Last time I checked the Pentagon was not in Boston, MA."

"Yes, well." O'Neill evasion time.

"Don't tell me you dodged work to be here, Jack." Daniel saw the impassive face, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm a grown man, Jack, I don't need you here to take care of me!"

"Daniel, I've seen you face down snakeheads and go through crap that'd scare anyone senseless, don't you think I know that! I just had a few vacation days and thought I'd lend a hand here. This isn't exactly a normal situation."

"Does anything we do count as 'normal'?" Daniel fidgeted with is glasses. "I guess I can use whatever help I can get."

Jack settled back in the seat. "Let's start at the beginning. What'd the doc say in this mysterious phone call of yours?"

During the rest of the ride to the hotel Jack had found for them, Daniel relayed what he had learned about his daughter. Her name, according to the doctor's records, was Cordelia Silverglade. Her mother, Harmony, had died several years ago, and until lately she had been living with her grandparents. Two days ago, Cordelia had been in a car accident, which resulted in severe injuries, including a concussion. The grandparents had been reached and informed, but due to medical problems of their own, had been unable to come to visit her, or help with the paperwork and bills which were being accumulated. The doctor had then turned to Cordelia's father. This required some research on his part, but with the name on the birth certificate and a little help from the DNA labs and Daniel's files with the government, they were able to track him down. (Cordelia's doctor turned out to be a distant relation of Agent Malcolm Barrett, and the FBI connection helped find Daniel.)

Daniel knew nothing else about her, not what she looked like, not what kind of things she was interested in. All he had was her date of birth and medical statistics. "Jack, what the hell am I supposed to do? As far as I know, I dated her mother for a short time, and then she left school. I guess this is the reason, but why didn't she tell me?"

"She clearly felt it was none of your business, and I doubt she was planning on dying young and leaving her daughter injured and alone."

"How is my daughter _not_ my business?" Daniel said slowly and forcefully.

Jack made air quotation marks with his fingers, "'My body, my business.' Welcome to the 21st century, Daniel."

"Finding out you have a severely injured relative who happens to be your 18 year old daughter was _not_ how I planned to spend my week, Jack!"

Sensing Daniel wasn't in the mood for small talk, Jack simply shrugged and the rest of the ride was spent in silence.


	3. New Circumstances

I forgot to say earlier: I don't own anything, so don't sue. Also, I wrote a lot of this in a rather funky mood, so please don't take anything too seriously. It's just a little story for fun.  
AND, on with the show!

* * *

Cordelia awoke and had no idea who she was, where she was, or what she was doing there. She found herself in a plain room in a bed with curtains on one side, so all she could see was the window, sitting in the middle of the white wall. She heard the regular beeping of machinery, and the next sense which came alive told her exactly where she was. The sterile smell of antiseptic reached her nose and 'Delia realized she was in a hospital room. Close on the tail of this revelation was the memory of who she was and her recollection of driving. All she remembered of the crash was a flash of intense pain, and the rest was black. 

Gathering her wits, fuzzy as they were, Cordelia tried to sit up. _That was a mistake!_ She thought as the attempt made her gasp with pain. The drugs she was full of had numbed most of her injuries, but the movement made her intensely aware of all of them nonetheless.

Attracted by the movement, a nurse came by and opened the curtain so Cordelia could see the rest of the room and into the corridor outside.

"You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Umm..." Muttered Cordelia. Her fogged brain attempted to organize her thoughts into coherent sentences. "Hurts. How long have I been here?"

"On a scale of 1 to 10 how much pain are you feeling? 1 being the least and 10 the most" The nurse asked, all professionalism.

Cordelia heard the nurse, but it took her several moments to figure out what she was asking. "Is 7 ¾ an option?" She mumbled. Before she had time to fully process an answer, another figure entered the room. He stepped up to the nurse, murmured something to her quietly and she left.

"Hello, Cordelia. I'm your doctor, Dr. Robertson. You've got quite a list of injuries you know."

Cordelia managed a "Hello" and tried to raise her hand in a little wave but was stopped by the IV attached to it.

"You mentioned you were hurting? Don't worry, I sent the nurse to go and get something that'll help."

"How long?" Delia asked again.

"You've been unconscious for two days. You had us all a bit worried!" The doctor smiled kindly and pulled up a chair by her bed, and proceeded to tell her about her injuries. "I'm afraid you won't be able to leave for another day or two, and you're going to need someone to help you out at home for the next several weeks as well. A family member or friend should be fine, but you will need someone there with you, okay? Just in case. We wouldn't want you to get hurt again while you're still healing."

Cordelia muttered something unintelligible, and the doctor left after a few more words and a promise to check back in again soon.

The nurse came and adjusted the IV drip, and Delia began to feel the effects of the medicine. Before she drifted off into a drug induced slumber, she thought _well, this is just great! Now I have to worry about medical bills too._ Yet, even with this thought, the medicine suppressed her anxiety, and she relaxed into the warm embrace of sleep.

The next time she woke up, she knew not to try and move. Instead she lay on the bed, and took inventory of her aches and pains. As her mom would've said, "take stock of the situation before making any decisions." The thought of her mother only brought a small pang of loss that Cordelia quickly pushed to the side. She closed her eyes and mentally made a list of what was wrong with her. _Bad choice of words…_ The first glaring evidence of her adventure in physics was the large bandage on her head. The doctor had mentioned a concussion, but Cordelia now realized they had cut her hair in order for them to get to the head wound. _Aw, man! Like I needed something else to worry about!_ Luckily, at this point the bandage covered up her butchered locks.

Cordelia reviewed her situation, watched some TV, and had some water through a straw before she gathered her wits enough to ask about her grandparents. She was told they were unable to visit. When she asked about her friends, she was told that if they were under 18 they wouldn't be allowed to visit by themselves. Dr. Robertson, who she had asked when he came into check up on her, told her what the visiting hours were, and then paused before continuing on. "Cordelia, you do realize this is a hospital in Boston? You were in critical condition for awhile, and they had you airlifted here."

"I…no one told me…oh." Cordelia was shocked and leaned her weight back against the pillows on her bed. "I, I see. Well, that would make it a little difficult…"

The doctor smiled gently at her. Though he couldn't have been more than 50, she could see that one day he would make a wonderful grandfather, assuming he wasn't already. "I'm sure your friends will figure out something. If you'd like, I'll get a nurse in here to help you phone your friends and you can talk it out with them."

"Thank you, that'd be great. That's very…thank you very much." She stuttered. _I'm in _Boston?_! I didn't even think about that! Talk about unobservant! Then again, I have just had a head wound, so I suppose I get a little leeway…_

Calling Leia did help, even though they couldn't talk long before Delia's head started to hurt. Leia promised she would get in touch with Mel, and that one way or another they would come visit her, "even if we have to hitchhike!"

Comforted by her friend's optimism and determination, 'Delia released her hold on consciousness once more.

Daniel paced from one end of the hotel room to the other. Jack, sitting on the bed watching him, could feel an incipient headache gathering. "Daniel, for cryin' out loud. The girl isn't some goa'uld who wants to blow your head off. She's just a kid who's been in an accident and needs someone to help her out."

Daniel stopped pacing and looked straight at Jack. "That's just it. I don't know how to help her. I don't even _know_ her."

"That's never stopped you before." Jack murmured softly.

There was a long pause as Daniel digested the quiet words. He sat next to Jack on the bed, and clasped his hands in his lap. "I guess… I'm not used to dealing with problems on a personal level."

"Ya think?" Jack snorted. Daniel glanced up quickly and glared at him.

"What's that supposed to mean? It's not like you're an expert either!"

"Hey, hey, woah there! Let's not start flinging…paint."

Momentarily distracted, Daniel blinked at the non sequitur and mouthed "Paint?" in confusion at the mixed, or rather bashed-to-pieces, metaphor.

Waving his error aside, Jack stood up and faced his friend squarely. "Look, Daniel, we both know we suck at personal stuff, so don't even go there. Just go in and treat it like any other situation we've dealt with. Helping people is your thing, so just…" O'Neill made a gesture with his hands. "..go do your thing."

"Jack I don't think I'll find an answer to this problem in _any_ ancient library or book."But Daniel couldn't help a small half smile as he took the offered hand and stood up.

The two walked downstairs to the hotel bar at Jack's urging. "What's a get together without a little beer for old time's sake?" He enthused, finding two open seats.

"Jack, if you get me drunk…so help me I will call Sam and tell her you're playing hooky."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Don't push your luck."

"But luck pushing is just so much fun….!"


	4. the meet and greet

You guys caught me at a good time: because of the lovely reviews I've gotten already, I decided to go ahead and post another chapter today. (Not to mention, this way I can procrastinate my homework more.) So, here ya go! And yeah, my characterization of Daniel is a bit OOC, but that's mostly because I was in a funky mood while writing this story. It's all in good fun, and please don't get offended if you are a Republican.

* * *

Another visit from the doctor, another sip of water, and a small cup of Jell-o for variation, and Cordelia found herself contemplating the mysteries of life at 12:15 in the afternoon. Said mysteries including why Finagle's Imp of Perversity hated her, and why the male leads in Soap Operas were always named Chad and had jaw lines straighter than the leader of the Republican Party. 

Just when Cordelia thought she had found the answer to her questions, and the true identity of Cecilia was about to be revealed, there came a burst of noise from outside her room. She turned off the TV and sat up expectantly. _It couldn't be. There was no way they managed it this fast!_

"Delia! Surprised? We made it!" If Leia hadn't been there to grab her shirt, Delia knew Mel would have run over and jumped on the bed, injured friend not withstanding, such was her excitement.

"Mel, Leia! How on earth did you get here?"

"Leia called in a few favors. You know that pizza boy she set up with her sister? Well-"

"I did _not_ set them up! I just gave him her cell phone number." Leia interrupted, though Mel took no notice.

"Well, it turns out he has relatives living up here, and gave us a ride! Isn't that awesome?"

"What happened to you car, Mel? It thought you couldn't bear to leave it behind when you went to the corner store."

"Oh, yeah, I ran it out of oil, had to scrap it."

Delia laughed at the face Mel made when describing the fate of her beloved car, and felt a smile come to rest on her own features. She felt more relaxed than she had felt in who knows how long, but being with her friends and their familiar bantering took her away from the unpleasant realities of her present situation. For one brief moment she felt that everything was normal again, and that she was just a regular teenage girl hanging out with her friends.

Leia and Mel carefully pulled up chairs, and the two caught 'Delia up on all the happenings. Safe in the warmth of their love and support, Delia relaxed and let herself ease back into the pillows.

"Ah..!" She gasped in pain as she inadvertently moved too fast. She had become so involved with Leia's story of the "great fast food poisoning scare of aught-five", that she had missed her pain meds.

Her friends were instantly all care and concern, and asked if there was anything they could do. Mel went out to the nurse's aid station and brought back a cup of water for Delia, while Leia helped her settle in more comfortably.

"We're so sorry, Delia! We just got talking, and…we forgot how badly you're hurt!" Leia's face was a picture of misery, (or at least, a picture of a miserable face, not necessarily misery itself….) and Mel's only slightly more cheerful.

"Please guys, don't worry, I'm fine."

"On the plus side, there were these two really hot guys out in the hallway." Mel added with a slight grin. "They were kinda old, one even had white hair, but _damn_! They're both a helluva lot better looking than anybody else I've seen around this hospital."

Delia grinned back. It hurt too much to laugh. "Mel, Leia, what would I do without you guys to cheer me up!"

Leia leaned over cautiously and gave her a very gentle hug. "Aw, you know we're always here for you."

"Cheer up? Whaddya mean? I thought you were "fine"?" Mel teased.

Delia fought the infantile urge to stick out her tongue and settled for rolling her eyes instead. "Alright, alright, I'm not fine now, but I will be."

"That you will, Cordelia, that you will." Dr. Robertson, coming in with clipboard in hand, heard her last sentence. "Ah, I see you have visitors. Well, I have another visitor I'd like you to meet." He gestured for the other people with him to come into Cordelia's room, and stepped aside to let the two men enter.

"That's them!" Mel whispered. "The cute ones!"

Cordelia had to admit, her friend had a point. The two men were almost of equal height, but one slouched slightly, and had his hands in his pockets. The other had short cropped silver hair, and though Cordelia put him in the box of "men old enough to be my grandfather" she had to admit he was attractive in an old guy kinda way. The younger one, _well_, no doubts there, definitely a looker. The brown hair and glasses just worked for the man, even if he _was_ in his forties or so.

"Uh, hi. Dr. Robertson, these are my friends Melissa Donovan and Leia Corde."

"Nice to meet you ladies." He nodded politely to them, and Mel waved back cheerily. "Cordelia, I'm very pleased to introduce you to Dr. Daniel Jackson." The younger of the two men stepped forward and nodded politely. "Hello." He smiled slightly, rather shyly, it appeared to Delia.

"Hello." She replied. "Are you going to be my doctor now?"

He blinked in surprise. "Ah, no. I'm not that kind of doctor, I'm an archeologist."

"Oh." _What was an archeologist doing here?_

Dr. Robertson stepped closer to her bedside, and looked directly at her with a serious expression on his face. "Cordelia," He said, "Daniel Jackson is your biological father."

Cordelia stared blankly at the doctor for a moment. "I'm sorry, can you…what do you mean 'father'?" Perhaps the idea of meeting her father at long last was the thought farthest from her mind, perhaps not. Either way, Cordelia was incapable of processing what she'd just heard. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Dr. Jackson trade glances with the silver-haired man.

"I know it may come as a bit of a shock, but when your injuries were first diagnosed we felt the seriousness of the situation warranted the necessity of finding your next of kin. It took some doing, but luckily his name was on the original birth certificate and we were able to track him down. Dr. Daniel Jackson is indeed your father, proven indisputably by DNA tests."

Delia blinked and fought the urge to hold her head in her hands. It would hurt too much at this moment, but she felt like making sure nothing fell out, what with the new information it had to absorb. Mel and Leia were absolutely silent, shocked, it appeared, even more than Delia was.

"I'm very sorry we had to meet like this, I know it's a lot to take in. If you want, Jack and I can come back in a few hours, to give you some time to take this all in." Dr. Jackson -her _father? -_ said gently.

"Um, no yeah. Sure, I-"Struggling for coherency, she blinked again and finally managed to say. "I, I think I'll be all right, just give me five minutes, here."

Looking apologetic at the awkward situation, the doctor addressed Daniel. "While you wait, I can fill you in on Ms. Silverglade's current condition." He led the Jack and Daniel to the other side of the room to talk quietly, giving Delia time to collect herself.

"Wow….totally did _not_ see that one coming." She muttered.

"No, shit! Who could've seen that one? A long lost father coming in out of the blue?" Leia asked, shaking her head in amazement.

"Oh please. This all happened to Stephanie in "As the Globe Turns." She got into an horrible boating accident, only to find the man she'd hit was her twin brother (raised apart), and then their long lost father came back, (they all thought he'd been dead for the last six years due to a particularly bad batch of oysters in season 2)-"

"Mel! Shut up! This isn't a TV show!" Leia put a hand over her talkative friend's mouth. "We'll talk about your daytime TV problems later; right now we need to focus on Delia!"

_Earlier that day…._

Daniel woke up with a mouth full of cotton, but blessedly headache free. He felt fine, ready to screw up his courage and meet his daughter. That feeling lasted until he looked at the clock and realized it was already 11 am. "Jack!" He hollered. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Wha?" Came the muffled reply from the other bed.

Daniel furiously threw a pillow at him, and ran into the bathroom. So much for presenting a perfectly groomed, well dressed first impression.

By the time they got to the hospital it was noon. It took them another ten minutes to find the right floor, and then they had to wait for a nurse who knew anything about their situation to tell them what was going on.

Finally, a kindly looking middle-aged man introduced himself as "Dr. Matthew Robertson. You're here about Cordelia Silverglade?"

"Uh, yes. I'm Daniel Jackson; I received a call a couple of days ago..?"

"Dr. It's great to meet you. I wasn't the one who talked to you on the phone, but I'm now in charge of your daughter's care."

"Thank you." Jack elbowed Daniel in the ribs, and he remembered his manners enough to introduce his companion. "Uh, sorry. This is my good friend Jack O'Neill. I hope its okay if he stays around, I mean, I know he's not family and the rules about patient confidentiality-"

Jack stuck out his hand and shook Dr. Robertson's. "Major General Jack O'Neill United States Air Force. What Daniel here _means_ to say, is that I'm here at his bequest and intend to hang around for awhile."

"Good to meet you General, I'm sure no one will mind if you stay with Dr. Jackson. Let me just go give Cordelia the heads up that's she's going to have some more visitors, this is her room here." He stepped inside and spoke to the occupant. Make that occupant_s_.

Daniel took a deep breath and straightened his collar.

"Daniel, remember to breathe. It's going to be fine."

"Jack, she has her friends in there with her, this is gonna be-"

"No one's threatening to kill you or torture you; this is a piece of cake!" And Jack just about shoved Daniel through the doorway.

Inside the room, Daniel's gaze was instantly drawn to the figure on the bed. Her head was partially covered by a bandage. Ouch, head wound. Daniel felt himself wincing internally in sympathy. Those were no fun. He could also see she had an arm in a cast and a lovely smatter of bruises on the other exposed skin he could see.

"Oh yeah, she's definitely your kid." He heard Jack murmur in a barely audible voice.

When the doc introduced him as her father, he could see the shock stop her in her tracks, and sent a "see! I told you!" glance Jack's way. All he got in return was a slightly raised eyebrow.

Trying not to make her more uncomfortable by staring Daniel surreptitiously examined the other two girls in the room. One was a strawberry blond, the other dark haired. Both seemed as stunned as Cordelia. Watching the way they closed ranks to protect their friend reminded Daniel of Sg-1 and their closeness.

"I'm very sorry we had to meet like this," He found himself saying. "I know it's a lot to take in. If you want, Jack and I can come back in a few hours, to give you some time to take this all in."

At Cordelia's reassurance, halting though it was, Daniel retreated to the far end of the room with Dr. Robertson to discuss the fats of the case. Although not as bad as it could be, the news wasn't what you'd call good.

"I'm afraid our most serious concern right now isn't for Ms. Silverglade's physical condition. So far the healing appears to be on track, no infections have set in, and she's responding well to the medication. Frankly, Dr. Jackson, Ms. Silverglade's financial situation is rather alarming." Dr. Robertson went on to explain that without health insurance, the bills for an extended hospital stay were growing very large, and because of her injuries Cordelia would require care for several more weeks yet. The grandparents were out of the picture, which left Daniel to pick up the tab.

Daniel was quick to reassure the doctor that he would take full financial responsibility, and promised to fill out the paperwork before he left the hospital. They chatted a little more about what kind of care would be required for Cordelia after she left the hospital, and then Dr. Robertson had to go on his rounds of his other patients.

Leaning his head in close to Jack's, Daniel began whispering at a furious pace. "Well this'll be fun. The bills I don't mind, that's fine. But how am I supposed to arrange care for her? Also, Jack, remind me, we need to get her on my health plan ASAP. Wait; am I officially alive again on that thing yet?" He trailed off, muttering to himself about insurance paperwork.

Jack gripped his shoulders reassuringly. "Daniel, one thing at a time. Go on, talk to her."

Daniel grimaced, but straightened up, unconsciously mimicking the Air Force stance he'd so often observed. He took a deep breath- and stalled. "Jack, you know me! Give me an alien language, I'm fine, but a kid?"

"Hey, hey, stop right there Daniel. This is not a panic situation. When she starts hanging out with crack heads, dressing like a whore, and getting knocked up, then you can panic."

Daniel whirled around to face the wall. "Jack that is not helping!" He screamed in a near silent voice.

"Ok, maybe that wasn't the best example. Here: wait till Vala finds out, then you can panic."

"Vala…" Daniel's face went still. "The Orii…" He turned to Jack and looked him in the eyes, panic gone, only seriousness in his expression. "You're right Jack. I'm blowing this way out of proportion. After what Vala went through…"

Jack was thrown by the sudden topic shift. Vala? What happened to Vala again? Getting attached to Daniel, going to the Orii home galaxy with him, …._OH_.

"She got impregnated by the Orii and gave birth to the child who is now leading them in an intergalactic crusade. If she can deal with Adria, I sure as _hell_ can deal with Cordelia Silverglade."

Jack frowned slightly. He didn't like the way this conversation had turned. Why was it always about work for Daniel? Besides the fact that his work entailed saving the human race from annihilation…He shrugged. Well, that was Daniel for you. Saving the universe one alien woman at a time.


	5. Perceptions

"Dude! That's your _dad!_" Mel whispered enthusiastically. "Who knew you'd get a hot one! That's so not fair!" She did not elaborate on precisely what part of the whole situation was unfair, and Leia obviously chose the teenage interpretation as her response was "Ew! Mel, please tell me you did not just say that!"

"I didn't mean it like that, you pervert! Even if he wasn't Delia's dad, he's _way_ too old for me. But darn cute…"

Delia heard their conversation, but wasn't actually listening. (This was probably for the best anyway). She lay in bed, not really thinking of anything, mostly just observing Daniel Jackson, her dad, talking to his friend after the doctor left. It was clear they were very close.

This man, with his glasses and short brown hair, an ordinary guy, was her long lost father? It was so….mundane. He looked like any other man on the street; there was nothing …special, striking, or unusual about him. There had been no crackle of electricity or instant connection when he walked in the room. Cordelia had just met her father, and felt nothing. To be honest she would, to quote one of her grandpa's favorite movies, "probably feel more if she wasn't so heavily sedated."

In fact she did feel one thing. Though the haze of pain meds, fatigue, and just plain confusion, Cordelia felt a surge of relief welling up from somewhere deep inside her. It took her a moment to puzzle out the source, and when she found it, she was surprised by what she found. Despite her independent streak and self-confidence in her own abilities, Cordelia found that she was immensely relieved to have her father here because it meant that she didn't have to figure it all out, and make it all right by herself anymore. Now there was an adult around, someone to help her and tell her what to do. For the first time in many months, Cordelia felt the weight of responsibility which had been crushing her begin to lift off her tired shoulders.

"Okay. I think I'm ready now."

Leia and Mel had been earnestly discussing something when Delia's pronouncement caught their attention. "Do you want us to stay or go, Delia? Either way is fine, so long as you feel comfortable, okay?" Leia stood up and put a supportive hand on Delia's arm.

"Yeah, we got your back, Delia, don't worry."

"Thanks guys. Um, if you don't mind, maybe I can talk to you guys again tomorrow? I think I'm gonna take a nap here after…this. I, this is something I need to do by myself."

"You betcha. We'll just be a phone call away." Mel pulled out her cell, plus an extra one and put it on the bedside table. Leia smiled at her, and the two left, Mel waving to Daniel and the silver haired man as they passed.

Jack gave a little wave as the girl's friends exited, then turned Daniel around and gave him a little push towards the bed. "That's your cue, Danny boy. I'm gonna wait in the waiting room out here. They have the newest issue of Sports Illustrated; it's a special hockey issue…" Jack walked towards the door, giving Daniel one last wiggle of the fingers and a lifted eyebrow to indicate that he needed to get the ball rolling.

Daniel cleared his throat, and stepping up to the bed, opened his mouth. "I'm Daniel Jackson," he began, and stopped abruptly, embarrassed. Why had he gone into his "meet and greet" spiel, the doctor had already introduced them, and it's not like he was on an alien planet!

"I'm sorry. You already know who I am." He grinned sheepishly, and as if his faux paux had somehow broken the ice, Cordelia smiled back; a small smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"That's okay." A beat of silence followed.

"So, this is awkward." Daniel had his hands in his pockets, and resisted the urge to fiddle with something. Cordelia had evidently given in, as she was twisting and playing with the sheets.

"Right. Let's start this again, shall we?" Daniel stuck his hand out. "Hi, I'm Daniel Jackson. It's nice to meet you."

Smiling shyly, Cordelia grasped his hand in her good one and shook it. Absently she noticed the calloused feel of it, and stored the information away for future contemplation. "Cordelia Silverglade. It's nice to meet you too."

"Well, I'm glad to see you're doing okay. The doctor's report sounded pretty bad over the phone."

Cordelia couldn't keep contact with those brilliant blue eyes very long, and darted a glance down at her lap as she tried to think of a response. "Yeah, the doctor said I was lucky to come out with as few injuries as I did."

"Ouch, that bad, huh? So what happened, anyway? All I heard was that you were in a car accident."

Before she knew it, Cordelia was giving him her history of her life for the past three years, in brief, ending with "So, I was distracted and being stupid, and another stupid distracted person t-boned me."

Daniel was startled by the recital, though he knew she had left out a lot. Her mother dying when she was 15? Her grandparents kicking her out? Living with a friend over the summer? Though she hadn't said it, he got the feeling that she had been at the end of her options when she'd gotten hit.

"I'm sorry." Was all he could think of to say.

Cordelia was going for a nonchalant shrug when the movement jarred her broken collarbone, and she gasped in pain.

Daniel's face instantly softened, sympathy plainly evident on his features. "Collarbone, eh? Yeah, I know it's not that fun. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, as Jack would say." While he spoke he glanced around for her medical chart. "When are you supposed to take your meds?"

Delia closed her eyes against the echoes of pain still rattling through her nervous system and barely heard his words. "Who's Jack? And I'm fine, I don't need more drugs."

Daniel turned, and for the first time Cordelia caught the full wattage of his amused grin. "Fine, huh? Jack was right." He didn't explain further, but Delia was too surprised by the sudden warmth of his smile to comment. Daniel pulled one of the chairs closer to the bed and answered her question. "Jack is the man who was in here earlier with me. I've known him for a long time, and he's one of my closest friends. I um, I noticed you had a couple of friends visiting also." Though not phrased as a question, Cordelia wasn't unaware he was asking for information.

"Yeah, Leia and Mel, whose real name is Melissa but everybody calls her Mel, came up to visit since their classes don't start for another couple of weeks."

"Oh, they're going to school?" Daniel asked politely.

"Yeah, at a community college near our home town. I always thought I'd go with them, but…" She trailed off.

"Cordelia," began Daniel hesitantly. They'd only just met, she didn't know him from Adam, but if he broached the subject now she'd have more time to make a decision about moving…

"You can call me 'Delia if you want." She put in. "I mean, I answer to pretty much anything but its less syllables, so it's easier to get out."

"Okay, 'Delia. And please just call me Daniel. Don't worry about… anything else…" He shrugged uncomfortably.

"Right."

"Uh, okay. Before you say anything, just hear me out."

Uh, oh. All the alarm bells in her mind started going off. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

Seeing the look of alarm on her face, Daniel instantly put up both hands in a placating gesture and tried to calm her down. "No, no, its fine, it's okay. Don't worry, it's nothing bad. I just wanted to get you thinking about what you're going to do after you get out of the hospital. I'm not going to run out on you or anything. I'm going to do everything I can to help, okay?"

Cordelia nodded, and then stopped abruptly, closing her eyes again.

"God, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot you have a concussion too! Delia, listen to me. I am really, really sorry I brought this up right now, it can wait until later." Daniel internally swore at himself. He was an asshole! This kid has some horrible injuries, been in the hospital for the last three days, unconscious for the better part of that time, and to top it off, just found out who her father was! "Can I get you anything?"

Delia opened her eyes, and when they focused she saw the worry on his face. "..thirsty…"

"I'll go get some ice chips, I'll be right back." He quickly went to the Nurses Aid Station and was back with a pink plastic cup before Delia could process the fact that this man, who she'd just met, was worried about her. And cared a lot, judging by the speed with which he returned.

"Here, just suck on one of these for a few minutes."

Catching her look of surprise at his choice of ice chips over a glass of water, Daniel smiled. "I've had my fair share of bumps and bruises, concussions too."

"More than your fair share, Spacemonkey."

"Jack!" Daniel said in a shocked voice. "I told you not to use that anymore! In front of…of _her_ no less!" It sounded like Daniel was going to say something else, but had changed the wording of the end of his sentence at the last minute. Delia was too surprised at the nickname to really pay attention to Daniel's retort.

"Sorry." Jack's smile could only be described as smug. (Well, it could be described as a shit-eating grin, but we are trying to maintain some standards here…)

Face burning, whether with embarrassment or rage, Daniel swung around to face his obnoxious friend. "I already have Vala on my case, I don't need you too!"

Jack took in his friends' demeanor and realized there was something else going on. Looking past Daniel to the girl on the bed, Jack thought he knew what that something was. "Hey, take it easy. I'm sorry, okay? I didn't realize you were so tetchy at the moment."

"_TETCHY?_"

"Ignoring the outburst, Jack walked up to the bed, and smiled and greeted the occupant. "Hi. Cordelia isn't it? I'm Jack."

"Hi. Daniel mentioned you guys have known each other for awhile, so I guess that explains the nickname…" It was obvious she was dying to know where "spacemonkey" had come from, but Jack had pissed Daniel off enough for one day, and ignored the hint. "Yeah, sometimes it seems like forever. So, how you doin'?"

"Okay."

"I think she needs to rest." Daniel had regained his equilibrium, but didn't look at Jack as he addressed him. "Delia, will it be okay if I leave for now, and come and visit tomorrow? We can talk then, so don't worry about anything, alright?"

"Sure, that's fine." She looked up into his earnest gaze, as he reassured her.

"I promise we'll work everything out. It'll all be fine."

She nodded slightly, wary of her head this time.

"We'll see you tomorrow. Do you want us to send your friends up if we see them?" Jack asked her, after Daniel had giver her hand a brief squeeze before turning towards the door.

"Yeah, I guess, if you see them. Don't worry about it though; I think I might get some sleep here."

"Okay. Bye for now."

"Bye."

"Oh, hey, if you have any questions you think of before tomorrow, here's the number of the hotel we're staying at, so just call if you need anything." Hastily Daniel scribbled the number down on a piece of paper he'd found in his pockets, and put it on the table next to the cell phone. "See you tomorrow!"

In the hall outside, a nurse heard Jack comment to his friend as the two walked toward the elevator. "…worrying like that. See, Daniel, you're a parent already."

Back at the hotel, Daniel sighed and leaned back onto the bed. "That went well. She already thinks I'm a completely insensitive jerk. This is going to be a terrific relationship."

"Daniel, you're being unreasonable." Jack took off his shoes, and scrabbled for the TV remote among the odds and ends scattered on the dresser. "Maybe we should go have a drink or two."

"_I'm_ being unreasonable! What was with you today?" Daniel sat up and glared at his friend. "You were practically holding my hand the entire time!"

Turning to face the irate Daniel, Jack folded his arms. "Well, if you didn't act like a four year old going to the dentist I wouldn't have to."

"Four year old? I don't believe you just called me that."

"Would you prefer geek?"

"Actually, yes."

"Fine, you're a geek. I was just there to make sure you didn't piss your pants before the big presentation. How about that?"

"Jack, you haven't called me a geek for nearly eight years! Why start again now?"

"Daniel, you haven't acted this …" Jack paused searching for the right word. Despite the insults, he really didn't want to hurt his friend, and took care with what he said. "I called you a geek when you were unsure of yourself and your own abilities in the field. This is the first time in a long while that you've had to face something you don't think you are qualified to deal with. Since your behavior is back to that ...innocence, I figured I should respond to it as I did then."

Daniel smiled faintly. He was still angry at his friend, but he was starting to understand where he was coming from. "Yeah, well."

There was silence for a moment, and Jack switched on the TV and thumbed through the channels.

"Thank you." Daniel said suddenly.

"What?"

"Thanks for helping. I mean, yeah, they probably thought we were gay or something, but you know, you're right."

"Wait, I'm right about something? Really? Cause I was just shooting off my mouth-"

"Drop the dumb thing Jack. You're right. This is a situation where I am completely out of my depth, and I was kinda acting the 'innocent' as you put it, and I guess I forgot, for a moment, how much I've changed since I first joined the Stargate program."

"So, you're not still mad about the Spacemonkey thing?"

"Oh, no. I haven't forgotten about that. I thought we agreed you'd never use that name again after Sg-7 gave me crap about it."

"For cryin' out loud, Daniel, there were only three of us in the room!"

"One of whom happened to be my _daughter_!"

Jack shrugged. "Yeah. She was probably gonna find out about it sometime."

"How? I suppose you would've told her? That's beside the point. This is her first impression of me! She doesn't know what the nickname came from; she probably thinks it's your pet name for me or something!"

"Hey look! Simpson's are on!"

"Jack, I was still talking."

"Since when I have ever listened when you're talking?"

Daniel sighed again, and slid up to lean against the headboard of his bed. "You've got a point.

"Daniel, it went fine. You were your nice, caring self, and she didn't think you were rude or eccentric. That'll happen later, when she gets to know you."

Debating the effort it would take to find something to throw at him, Daniel decided discretion was the better part of valor, and only commented "Hey, is this the episode where they mock MacGyver?"

"Yeah, it is. I love this one."

* * *

(Unnecessarily lengthy) Author's Note: Just some personal observations here: The characterizations of the friends, Leia and Mel, may seem a bit juvenile, seeing as they are on their way to college, but trust me, maturity has nothing to do with age. Also, I think Daniel and Jack kind of go in and out of character. What do you guys think? Do my characterizations need more work? This whole story is more a character driven than plot driven, as I try and work out the dynamic between Daniel and his daughter. It should be an interesting trip; thanks for riding along! 


	6. Moving On

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! I'm glad you like the story so far. In this chapter I have fun with gentle mocking of slash, a subtle quote from season 7, (can ya spot it?) and pop culture references.

* * *

The next morning felt like a repeat of the day before. Cordelia slept in, and at the start of visiting hours, Leia and Mel came in. However, their topic of conversation was very different today. 

"So, Delia how do you feel about all this?" Leia asked.

"Well, it was kinda weird."

"No duh. Meeting your practically grown-up daughter for the first time?" Mel shook her head. "It's bound to be awkward. What do you even _have_ to talk about?"

"Well, he seemed nice. Not really…weird or anything." Leia put in.

"Yeah, he seems pretty cool. I mean, the whole gay thing? Definitely cool."

"What? Mel, what are you talking about?" Delia stared at Mel in surprise. "He didn't say anything about himself, really, how do you know?"

"Delia, you had to have noticed the way he and his friend were looking at each other." Leia said, as though stating the obvious. "And the other guy, what was his name?"

"Jack." Delia didn't know how she felt about this newest revelation.

"Yeah; Jack. He was, like, constantly touching him and stuff."

Mel nodded. "It was so cute!"

_I guess that explains the nickname._ Cordelia thought wryly. "I still think you guys are jumping to conclusions." She protested half heartedly. She searched her memory for anyone in her experience that interacted like that, among the guys of her acquaintance, and came up empty. The only gays she knew were from high school, and she didn't count them.

Mel shifted in her chair. "Delia, you can't deny the fact that they weren't acting like regular guys."

Leia saw that Cordelia was uncomfortable and kicked Mel in the shins. "Shut up, Mel, just let it go."

"Aw, why can't my dad be gay or something interesting like that, instead of just a lousy cheating bastard." Mel's parents had gotten divorced as a result of an affair, but both parents were now remarried. Mel spoke of her father with in affectionate, disillusioned terms. The split had occurred a good seven years ago, and the wound was an old one, covered in scar tissue.

But, Mel obeyed the directive, and shut up, leaving Leia to educate them about the chances of the Red Sox in getting to the World Series again, now that the "… Yankees have bought all the talent they can get their grubby paws on."

"Yeah, Johnny Damon was good, but he didn't get them to the Series all on his own!" Delia was protesting, getting into the discussion, when Daniel and Jack came into her room.

Leia's retort died on her lip. She glanced at Cordelia and saw that all of her friend's attention was focused on the new arrivals.

"Cordelia, we'll call you tonight, okay? And $10 says the Yanks get to the Series again next year." Mel stood up, and put a gentle hand on Delia's shoulder.

"Mel, there's no way we're gonna take you up on that bet. Cordelia's injured, not ignorant. Talk to you later, Delia, hang in there." Leia squeezed her wounded friend's hand, and then she and Mel left. This time it was Jack who waved at them as they left, which earned him a small smile and wave from Leia, and a bright grin from Mel along with a thumbs-up sign.

Not sure what to make of the friends, Jack turned to Daniel and was just opening his mouth to speak when he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. "Crap. I swore I left that thing in the hotel room." He muttered, but pulled it out and answered it. "General O'Neill." Glancing at Daniel, he mouthed "I have to take this," And gestured at the door. Daniel nodded.

"He's a general?" Cordelia hadn't spoken since the two men had entered the room, and Daniel started in surprise at the sudden question. "Uh yeah. I'm sorry; did I not introduce him to you?"

"You told me his name, but that was about it."

"Sorry. He's Jack O'Neill, and he is a general in the Air Force."

"Ah. How do you two know each other?"

Daniel pulled up a seat next to the bed. It seemed Delia was less nervous today, and more willing to make small talk.

"Uh, I was doing some research for the Air Force about 10, nearly 11 by now, years ago, and he was the officers in charge of the project."

"You're an archeologist, right? Isn't that what you said?"

"Yes, I am." Daniel was surprised and impressed that she remembered his mentioning it in passing the day before. He had been sure she was in too much shock to really hear anything he was saying.

"What did the Air Force want with an archeologist?"

"That's what I asked myself when they approached me." Daniel said with a slight grin. "I do research for them about other cultures, so when their forces land in an unfamiliar area they don't cause unnecessary problems with the natives."

"Wait, so you still work with the Air Force? For more than 10 years!? Cordelia could hardly believe it. Talking took her attention away from her aches and pains, but her head began to hurt. "How old were you when you started?" She blurted out, and then blushed faintly. "I'm sorry, that was rude."

"No, it's okay. You're curious about me, I'm curious about you. Please ask questions, and I'll do the best I can to answer them." Daniel settled back in his chair and prepared to giver Delia the Reader's Digest version of his life story. "I was pretty young when the Air Force hired me. By that time I had several Ph.D.s, including archeology and anthropology. My focus was Egyptology, since I was born there and lived for several years there with my parents, as they were also archeologists and involved with digs all the time.

"Cool." Delia was impressed, and sighed internally. He sounded so smart! And, well, sophisticated. He was born in another country for crying out loud! She'd never even been to Canada! (Did go to Mexico once, though…)

Daniel shrugged, and continued with his story. "My parents died soon after we came back to the states. I was still just a young kid, and had to go into Foster Care. After that, I pretty much threw myself into my studies."

Delia was taken aback by his forthrightness. "I, I…"

He smiled gently at her. "So, believe it or not, I have an idea of what you've been through; not having parents around is hard. At least you had your grandparents there for you."

She nodded mutely.

"It wasn't until I was grown up that I finally met people who became a real family for me."

"Are you married?" She asked, confused by his mention of family.

A brief shadow seemed to cross his features. It was there and gone so fast Cordelia wasn't sure that she'd actually seen anything at all.

"I was, a long time ago." He fell silent, looking at nothing for a moment. Almost to himself he said softly, "Her name was Sha're and I loved her very much."

_Sha're? Must be a foreign name. Maybe he married an Egyptian?_ Delia's curiosity was piqued, but she didn't want to be rude and pry too much. "Can I ask what happened to her?" She said hesitantly.

"She was kidnapped and later killed." He said quietly, looking her in the eyes.

Delia was shocked, and she felt her eyes go wide.

"I'm sorry Delia, I didn't mean to scare you. I shouldn't have said it like that…" The earnest concern in his voice allowed Delia to smile weakly.

"Its okay, it's just-" She paused. "I've lived my whole life in the same town, within five blocks of the house I was born in. (Well, where we lived when I was born, I was actually born in a hospital), the only family I had was my mom and grandparents. I had a boring life! I mean yeah, my mom died, but she had a bad heart! It was _normal_." Cordelia twisted the sheets in her lap as she spoke, unconscious of the mutilation she was inflicting on the fabric. "It's just, really strange to hear you talk about all that stuff, like its _okay!_ I mean, obviously its not okay, its really horrible, but…" she fumbled with her words.

Daniel smiled gently. "I know what you mean. Go on."

Delia took a deep breath, still not looking at him. "Stuff like that, kidnapping, and being orphaned, that stuff happens on the news, on TV! It doesn't happen to people! At least, not in my experience…" She trailed off.

"I'm glad."

Delia made herself look him in the eye, surprised by his words.

"I am." He repeated, staring at her solemnly. "It makes me glad to know that you didn't have to go through all that stuff. He cracked a slight smile. "Glad to know my daughter didn't get my bad luck."

"Bad luck? The doc says you're going to take care of all my bills, and you didn't even look at them. That's not what I call bad luck. And it seems like you and Jack have a great thing going."

"I'm sorry, what do you mean, Jack and I have a "great thing going"?" Daniel asked, quickly jumping on her specific wording, with an apprehensive look on his face.

Delia blushed faintly. "I, I just meant you guys seem close, that's all. And that you're still together after 10 years…"

Daniel groaned. "I _told_ him! I can't believe it…" He muttered to the room at large.

Cordelia stared.

Daniel noticed her look, and had to smile. "No, Jack and I are not together. Neither of us is gay, and "Spacemonkey" has a very long story attached to it that I'll explain another time, okay?"

"Sorry." Delia muttered, blushing furiously now. She stared down at her lap in embarrassment feeling the warmth in her face and knew she must be doing a pretty good tomato impression right about now.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's not the first time it's been suggested."

"Mel's gonna be disappointed." She said quietly, and a small smile crept out at the thought. Once you got past the embarrassment, you had to admit the situation was pretty funny.

Daniel's smile disappeared. "What?"

In response, Cordelia's own grin grew. "She was envious that my dad turned out to be good looking and gay. She thought it was cool."

Not knowing how to respond, Daniel opened his mouth once or twice, and shut it again without saying anything. Finally he managed, "That's too bad for her, I guess…" He shifted his weight in the chair.

"So, Cordelia, what do you do on days when you aren't stuck in a hospital bed?"

Their discussion of her interests and favorite movies (turned out Daniel had never seen Edward Scissorhands, much to Cordelia's astonishment) took them through the afternoon until Dr. Robertson came to check on Cordelia.

Seeing the two deep in conversation made him smile. It was so rare for these kinds of situations to start off on the right foot, but it seemed that these two would be able to work it out. "Good afternoon Dr. Jackson, Cordelia."

"Hello Doctor. And it's Daniel."

"Hi Dr. Robertson." Cordelia was sitting up, and despite the bandage on her head and bruise on her chin, she looked much more awake and lively than she had for the last couple of days.

"How are you feeling today, Cordelia?" The doctor asked, as Daniel moved away from the bead and he began his examination.

"Fine, my head doesn't hurt as much. I don't feel dizzy or anything."

"Good, good." After a quick review, Robertson stood back and picked up her file, notated a few things, and then turned to Daniel. "Have you though any more about hiring a caregiver or nurse for when she is released?"

"No, I haven't really had time to look into that." Daniel replied slowly.

"Well, it seems Ms. Silverglade here is a quick healer! It seems she is responding better than we thought, and at this point in time I'd say she's ready to go home."

"Really?" Cordelia was stunned. Though only a few days, her stay at the hospital had seemed interminable, and the feeling that she was never going to leave had pervaded her mind.

"Yes. In fact, I'd say, Dr. Jack- Daniel, that you don't have to worry about hiring a registered care giver if you can work from home for a few weeks."

"A few weeks?" Daniel frowned. "That reminds me, I need to make a call real quick. Cordelia, doctor, if you'll excuse me for a moment?" He left politely, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket as he left the room.

Cordelia smiled in absent minded acknowledgement of his words, but she was preoccupied with the content of the doctor's words. _I can go home._ She thought. _But I don't know where "home" is anymore._

"I'm afraid you'll be on bed rest for the next week or two, but I'm sure Dr. Jackson will make sire you have plenty to do."

Delia smiled weakly. _Did this mean…?_ She daren't even give voice to the thought internally. "Great. So…" She trailed off, unsure what she wanted to ask. She felt uneasy about letting Dr. Jackson foot the entire hospital bill; it felt a lot like taking charity from a nice stranger. _But_, she reminded herself. _He is family. He's my dad, and parents are s_upposed_ to take care of their kids!_ Still didn't make it any easier, but it wasn't like she had a lot of choice in the matter.

As if sensing her inner turmoil Dr. Robertson put a gentle hand over hers. "Trust me, Cordelia, everything will be fine. Dr. Jackson is a very kind, genuine person who is doing the best he can under the circumstances."

"Thanks." Cordelia closed her eyes and concentrated on not blushing at her transparency. Having outsiders comment on your insecurities was always uncomfortable, even coming from a nice guy like Dr. Robertson.

"You're welcome. Believe me when I say that you will be in very capable hands when you leave here." He smiled once more, and with another gentle pat left the room, pulling the curtains around her bed closed as he did so.

Leaning back and closing her eyes, Delia pondered what the man had said. She was going to be leaving the hospital, and going to who know where with a man she had only met a few days ago! Except for the biological ties which bound them this was one of those "don't get in a stranger's car" situations, wasn't it? And what about her life _here_ in Massachusetts? _What life?_ The pessimistic side of her questioned. _Your friends are going to college, your grandparents have their own problems, you don't have a job or a car…shall we continue?_ Raising the hand not connected to the IV, Cordelia slowly reached up and touched her head gingerly. Crap, too sore to smack. _I guess living with Daniel can't be worse than where I'm at right now._ She thought resignedly.

A few moments later she heard footsteps enter the room, and Daniel pulled away open the curtain as he approached the bed. "Sorry about that, I had told my boss I'd only be gone three days, and had to make sure it's okay if I take a bit longer."

"Where do you work, anyway?" She watched his reaction closely for clues. Clues about what she wasn't sure, but mostly she just wanted to get to know this stranger better before she got in a car with him.

"I work in Colorado Springs, at a military institution near there." He adjusted his glasses nervously. "I have a house there, and I guess it'll become your house too, here, in the next couple of days."

"Guess so." The reply was soft.

"That is, unless you have another …solution?" He asked tentatively, aware of her difficult situation, but wanting to give her a choice.

Cordelia shook her head. "Nope. Totally outta those." She made her voice cheerful. "Never been to another state before, should be interesting!"

Daniel flashed her smile in response, and for a moment neither of them said anything. Finally, after a brief throat clearing Daniel resumed the conversation. "So, I'm sure you're anxious to leave this hospital. Do you think you'd be ready to go by tomorrow afternoon?"

Delia swallowed her shock. Leaving for a completely new situation, _now_? What about packing? And saying goodbye? "um.." She managed.

A sympathetic look was her reply. "I know this is sudden, but it really is the best way to do this. We can make a few stops on the way out, so you can say goodbye and pick up some stuff." He then told her his plan of stopping by her home town before hitching a plane ride from the Air Force base a few miles away to take them to Colorado.

"Okay, I can be ready, I guess."

"Once you're all healed up we can talk about coming back to visit. And who knows, maybe after two weeks you'll be able to move back here."

Cordelia could tell Daniel was doing his best to make this easy for her, and she did appreciate it but it was still hard. She nodded.

"So, I'm gonna go call Sam, a friend of mine who's watching my house for me, and I promised to ring before we left."

"Another 'very close friend'?" Cordelia commented with a faint blush and smile.

Daniel grinned at the joke between them. "Yes, actually. _She_ and I have worked together almost as long as I've known Jack. I'll let her know what's going on, and see what I can do about transportation." He turned to leave, and stopped. Facing the bed again, he stared intently at her. "Delia, you're sure you're okay with all of this? We can wait another day if you want."

_Another day another dollar_, the voice in the back of her mind said. She quickly shushed it, but a pang of guilt shot through her nonetheless. Hospitals were not cheap. "No, I'll be fine. Go ahead and call your friend."

He nodded and left the room. Out in the hall she heard him excuse himself to someone, and within moments Leia and Mel had appeared in the doorway so recently vacated.

"Hi! Just thought we'd pop in for a sec before we go get dinner." Mel had a hooded sweatshirt with Egyptian hieroglyphs on it, and a cartoon picture of King Tut's mummy on the front.

"Where did you get that hoodie, Mel?" Cordelia asked. She wondered if Daniel would be able to read the hieroglyphics.

"At some random little shop we found. Isn't it cool?"

"Yeah, did you know Daniel's an archeologist and Egyptologist?"

Leia gasped. "He's smart _and _handsome? Geesh, you'd never think he was related to you!"

Delia stuck her tongue out. "Thanks for that."

"Hey, speaking of your dad, how's things going with you two?"

"Fine." Cordelia paused for a moment. "I'm moving to Colorado tomorrow."

Mel was stunned into silence. Leia erupted with a loud "WHAT?!"

Staring down at her lap, Delia continued. "Doc says I can leave the hospital but I need 24/7 supervision at home."

"So? You can stay with us! Colorado! That's like on the other side of the world!" Mel quickly regained the use of her vocal chords.

"Mel, it's not that far. And," Leia paused, her voice full of sadness. "We're going to school. We can't be there for her constantly." Unspoken but clearly heard was _we're moving on with our lives_.

"Tomorrow? Man, you don't have anything packed, do you?"

"No. Actually, I was kind of hoping you guys could help out with that."

"Of course! What do you want us to do?"

Cordelia explained the plan as Daniel had outlined it for her. Leia and Mel agreed to talk to their ride and see if they could get to Morseville a little ahead of Daniel and Cordelia so they could pack up her things before she flew out from nearby Air Force base.

"Oh, Delia! We'll miss you so much!" Leia wailed, finally giving in to the tears that had been threatening to fall for the duration of their conversation. Mel placed a comforting arm around her shoulders and blinked back the moisture from her own eyes. "It's not like we'll never see her again, right Delia?"

Cordelia brushed a tear away and nodded slowly.

"And we'll write and call and everything." Leia promised.

"Yeah. You'll get tired and annoyed with us, that's how much we'll call you!"

"I'm _already_ tired and annoyed with you two." Delia replied, her tone of voice belying the words, as did her trembling smile.

"Okay, we've got a seat on a transport out of Hanscom Air Force Base, not the most comfortable ride in the world…" Daniel trailed off as he saw the three girls in various stages of crying. "I'm sorry, I'm interrupting…" He began apologizing but stopped short, and chuckled once before catching himself.

Completely nonplussed by the mood shift, Cordelia hastily wiped away the tears which had escaped, and glared at him. "What is so funny?"

Daniel swallowed his grin and attempted to speak without laughing. "I'm sorry, but your friend's shirt…" He coughed.

Cordelia looked blankly where Daniel was staring, and realized it was Mel's sweatshirt that had caught his attention.

Noticing the direction of their gaze, Mel looked at her cloths and attempted to read the glyphs on her back by craning her neck around. "What is it? What does it say?"

Another strangled noise escaped from his lips before Daniel could answer. "Um, best translation I can get says 'hippo poop are sky life drunk heron.'"

"Really? That's what it says?" Mel continued to do her best to ignore the basic rules of human physiology and strained to see the hieroglyphics on her back. "You're not punk'n me?"

"She means 'kidding'," Leia was quick to put in, in case the archeologist was out of touch with pop culture.

"Leia, he lives in Colorado, not Antarctica! He knows what 'punk'd' means!" Mel replied, temporarily distracted from her endeavor.

"Actually, one of my co-workers uses that phrase pretty often." Daniel added, having regained his composure.

"Really?" Leia was surprised. "I thought only my generation watched-" and she stopped as she realized she'd put her foot in her mouth.

His grin helped ease her consternation, but she blushed anyway. "Yeah, well, he acts like a teenager half the time, so there's not as much of an age gap as you might think."

"Talking about me behind my back again, Daniel?" Jack came in, leather jacket in one hand and car keys in the other.

"No, actually I was talking about Mitchell."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Really? Am I going to have to report insubordination, Dr. Jackson?"

Daniel firmly kept his tongue and eyes steady. He would _not_ stoop to Jack's juvenile level.

"I'm not military. And besides, you should know by now I only compare you to an eight year old, not a teenager." Daniel turned back to their female audience. "It seems like my ride is here, so Cordelia, we'll finalize these plans tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure."

"Goodnight ladies." Jack grinned at them and tossed the car keys to Daniel. "For that little crack you get to drive back to the hotel."

"Bye Leia, Mel. See you tomorrow Delia."

As the men left, they could hear just hear Daniel's conversation with Jack fading away.

"Just what are you so happy about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You talked to Sam, didn't you? About that leave coming up?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Mel and Leia burst out giggling.

"Come on, guys! You're acting like middle schoolers! What on earth are you giggling about?"

"They are so dang cute together!" Leia sighed.

"And what about this Sam guy?" Mel asked excitedly. You could almost see the wheels in her head putting together a love triangle worthy of day time TV.

Cordelia smiled at her friends' over reactions. "Guys, I hate to break up this fantastic story you have going, but Daniel and Jack aren't gay, and Sam's a girl."

Mel scoffed. "Now look whose making up stories."

"Yeah, how do you know?" Leia looked affronted.

"Because I asked him, you morons." The insult was affectionately given.

"Fine, fine, ruin my day!" Mel pouted. "Just you wait. They really do love each other and one day they'll realize that the artificial boundaries created by society (and the Air Force) can't separate them forever and they'll come to see that they can't live without-"

"Mel! Shut it! No one cares about your personal fantasies."

"Come on, Leia. Be nice to her. Someday we'll be watching TV and see a soap opera written by Melissa Donovan, and we can say 'Hey, we knew her at the beginning!'" Cordelia teased.

Mel smile gratefully at her. "Okay, okay. But we do need to get our act together for tomorrow."

"Right. I'll call Caleb and see about the ride thing."

"But first, dinner!" Mel declared. "Hey, Delia, don't worry about a thing. Between your 'not-gay' dad and Leia and me, everything'll turn out just fine!"

"Except maybe your hair." Leia added with a cheeky grin. "Not sure how we can salvage that."

"What? Why you-!" Delia tried to act angry but failed, and ended up grinning so hard her head hurt. "Go on, get out of here. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Delia." "Have a good night."

"And my _hair_ will be perfectly fine once it grows out!" She called after them as they left the room.


	7. Meeting the InLaws

A/N: Allow me just to apologize for this following chapter. My characterizations may have, if anything, gotten worse. But hey, it's all in good fun, and in this chapter Cordelia gets to meet the rest of SG-1!! As I may have mentioned before, I wrote this just for my own amusement, so there are gonna be some quirky things in there. Let me know what you think of it! Oh yeah, and after this chapter I only have one more pre-written, so it may be awhile before I update again, just to give you heads up. Thanks again to all my reviewers! And now, back to the story...

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Before she knew it, Cordelia found herself in the backseat of a car driving towards her hometown, for the last time until who knows when? Daniel sat next to her, with Jack and an Air Force driver up front. 

The morning had been spent in a last round of tests with Dr. Robertson, getting medicine and other medical information about her condition and on going care, and then the paperwork which said Cordelia was officially allowed to go. Since she wasn't a minor there had been no hassle about her leaving with Dr. Jackson, and they had been able to get on the road soon after lunchtime.

It ha been an uncomfortable experience for Cordelia to be wheeled out of her room and through the hospital, but she had to admit that even the movement of the chair had made her a little nauseous. The whole concussion thing really sucked. Since her friends had left for Morseville earlier, there was no one to say goodbye to at the hospital. As Daniel and a nurse helped her into the car Cordelia couldn't help but picture her mother again. "And Cordelia honey, remember, even if he offers you candy or cookies or other nice things, if you don't know him, don't get into the car, okay? Run away and call for help." _Mom, I don't have anyone to run to. And besides, you knew him, so he's not really a stranger…_ Her complete dependence made her feel like a child again, and she had to consciously remind herself that _she_ had made this decision, and that it was for the best. _"I promise…It'll all be fine."_ Daniel's words, spoken only a few days ago, echoed in her mind, and her mother's childhood warning faded away. He would take care of her, he'd promised. The man sitting next to her in the car was no stranger. He was her father.

Daniel, his head leaned back and eyes closed, tried to relax, but the vibration of the plane was making that rather difficult. Sighing, he raised his head and looked around. Cordelia seemed to be asleep, and for a moment Daniel wondered at her ability to sleep in these conditions before he remembered the Vicoden she'd taken before they left Hanscom.

He shifted in his seat. Almost there, according to his watch. He'd spent the first half of the journey updating his journal. This trip was definitely one for the record books. His daughter was normal and blessedly alien free, and there had been no sign of anything other than the usual earth side activities. No large mutant creatures had been sighted, nothing. He'd even convinced Jack not to escort them home, telling him they'd all get together later, once Cordelia was settled in.

When he'd called Sam yesterday she promised that she'd be waiting for them with a car and a wheelchair for Cordelia. Daniel, upon further reflection, realized he should have specified a minimal greeting party. He wasn't sure how Cordelia would feel about being trotted out in front of his whole team. _Time to meet the in-laws_, he thought wryly, but his features relaxed at that thought. Well, she'd meet them in all their strangeness at some point, might as well be from the get-go. Sam had also said she'd let Dr. Lam know about Delia and would have her on stand by in case they needed her.

Feeling the plane beginning to descend, Daniel carefully touched Cordelia on the shoulder. "Wake up, we're here." He helped her sit up slowly, cautious of the sling her right arm was in, and wary of her other injuries.

"Already?" She asked slowly, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"Well, certainly seemed long enough to me." The SF who'd helped them get on the plane came by and put Cordelia in a wheelchair they found somewhere. Daniel thanked him, and picked up his bag and the one Delia's friends had packed for her, then followed the SF out of the air craft.

Peterson Air Force Base was very close to Cheyenne Mountain, and when Daniel saw the group waiting with Sam, he couldn't say he was surprised.

"Daniel! You're back!"

Cordelia was woken from a deep, dreamless slumber when Daniel announced they were landing in Colorado. She wasn't completely awake yet when the air force guy helped her into another wheelchair. But out in the open air she woke up quickly enough. It was early morning here in Colorado, and the sun was making its presence felt.

She looked around her as they crossed the tarmac landing strip, and noticed that the Air Force was quite active despite the early hour. Her attention was quickly drawn to a group of people waiting just outside the building which seemed to be their destination.

"Daniel! You're back!" The words so gladly proclaimed came from a tall woman with short blonde hair. As they got closer she stepped forward and gave Daniel a hug. "Hey, Sam." He replied.

So this was the Sam he'd mentioned. Definitely _not_ who Cordelia'd been picturing. (Not that she'd had a specific image in mind, but the woman in her mind's eye hadn't been blonde, whatever else she'd been. Actually she'd been picturing a sweet little brunette, for some odd reason…) She looked at the rest of the group, observing that the only real common denominator among them was their height, as they were all taller than her. At 5'6" she wasn't a midget, but clearly the Air Force liked 'em tall. Behind the blonde women was a large (very large!) black man with a striped beanie on his head, standing next to a woman with black hair in pig tails. She seemed to be pouting. On her other side was another man, wearing a comfortable looking leather jacket and a smirk.

"Hey Jackson, aren't ya gonna introduce us?" The smirking man drawled. Seemed even the Air Force couldn't avoid stereotypes…

"I was getting there Cam." Daniel strode to the side of the wheelchair, and put a hand on the back of it. "Cordelia, these are my friends and co-workers. Sam Carter, Teal'c Murray, Vala Mal Doran, and Cameron Mitchell. Guys, this is Cordelia Silverglade."

Cordelia waved with her good hand. "Hi." She tried a smile, but it felt awkward. _I've met new people before; I'm _fine_ with new people! So why am I so nervous?_ She asked herself. _Besides for the fact that they know nothing about me and will probably hate me._

"So, you're the new woman in his life, is that it?" The black haired woman, Vala, asked as she came up and leaned possessively on Daniel's shoulder.

"Cordelia, please just ignore her." Delia noticed that despite his apparent annoyance Daniel hadn't shrugged Vala off. "Vala, _try_, I know it's difficult, just _try_ to be polite for her first day, alright?"

Trying to make conversation, Cameron addressed Delia. "So, you're really Jackson's daughter, eh? And no one knew?"

Unsure how to respond, Cordelia just muttered something. "Apparently. DNA says so."

"Cam!" Sam admonished. "I apologize for these guys. It's nice to meet you Cordelia."

Delia shook the proffered hand and smiled a genuine smile at the blonde woman. Something about Sam Carter made it easy to smile around her. "Thanks, you too." The polite words came easily to her lips, but she couldn't help but wonder it they were really true. Was she glad to have met Daniel's friends? Too early to tell, she decided.

Daniel rejoined the conversation after exchanging glares with Vala. "Sam is a Lieutenant Colonel and an astrophysicist over at NORAD."

Cordelia nodded like she knew what he was talking about. The only thing she knew about Colorado was that there were springs involved, and there were a bunch of mountains with the same name.

"And Vala here is my research assistant." Daniel finally removed Vala's arm from his shoulder and took a step away from her.

"I'll research anything you want, darling." Vala smiled sweetly.

Cordelia blinked. Did that woman just make a pass at Daniel?

"Stop it. I thought we'd gotten past all this!" Daniel turned to face her, and Cordelia got the feeling they tended to fight a lot.

"I'm insecure because now you have someone else to care for and I'm acting out." Vala replied, flipping her pigtails.

"You haven't been studying for another psyche eval., have you? Vala…" Daniel trailed off, unsure how else to respond.

"Cordelia. You know that's a very pretty name." Vala ignored Daniel's lack of response and turned to address the girl in the wheelchair.

"Thanks. My mom liked Shakespeare, and thought it was a neat name."

"Hey Jackson, didn't you once say you played Hamlet in a school play?" Cam jumped into the conversation.

Daniel raised his hands. "Mitchell! Whatever happened to 'this never leaves the room'?"

Cordelia watched their interaction with bemusement. Clearly this was a close knit, if rather odd, group of people.

"Daniel can't hold his alcohol." Vala whispered to Cordelia as the two men began bantering.

"What?" Cordelia asked, confused by the apparent non sequitur.

"What they're talking about." Vala nodded towards the guys. "When Daniel was drunk once he mentioned that thing about Omelet."

"Hamlet." Cordelia corrected automatically.

"Indeed. Col. Mitchell, I believe you are confused." A deep voice said.

Cordelia nearly jumped in her chair. Despite his impressive bulk, she had completely forgotten the fifth member of the group, the one with that odd name, Teak? No, Teal'c, that was it. He had been standing off to the side, observing everything quietly. He stepped forward now, and inclined his head towards Mitchell.

"The female character that is Hamlet's romantic interest is named Ophelia. Cordelia is the devoted daughter of King Lear in another of William Shakespeare's historic plays."

Mitchell stopped appealing to Sam to make Daniel stop cursing him in Arabic, and gaped at Teal'c. "What! Don't tell you you've learned how to read _minds_ from one of those self-help books."

Teal'c ignored the comment, and instead addressed Cordelia.

"Cordelia Silverglade, it is an honor to meet you." And he bowed his head graciously.

Delia tried to stop her mouth from dropping open. Never in her entire life had anyone _bowed_ to her before! Certainly not some huge black guy who looked like he could break someone's neck with his pinky finger!

"I have known your father for many years, and I have come across no one more courageous and honorable."

"Um, thanks." She muttered, not sure how to respond.

"Thank you Teal'c." Daniel said quietly.

"We got cake!" Vala announced suddenly, breaking the solemn moment.

"You haven't been talking to Jack, have you?" Daniel asked, as he looked suspiciously from Sam to Mitchell to Vala. A glance at Teal'c revealed nothing. "Come on guys! Can't we at least give her some time to settle in at my house before we drag her to some party?"

Delia wasn't sure she liked being talked about as if she weren't there, but before she could say anything Sam replied.

"Of course. We are going to your house, that's where the cake is!" The blonde woman wore a mischievous smile. "And hopefully at this party Cam won't lose his pants."

"Hey! That was uncalled for! And in front of the girl, too!" Cameron was outraged.

"You're the one who brought up Daniel's drinking problem; you shouldn't dish it out if you can't take it!" Said Vala, conveniently forgetting that it was in fact her who had mentioned the drinking part. She winked at Cam, and then walked around to the back of Delia's wheelchair. "What do you say we get this party started, hmm? The boys are much too busy fighting to think, and I bet you're getting hungry."

As the black haired woman spoke, Cordelia felt her stomach grumble. "Now that you mention it…"

"Great. What kind of pizza do you like?" As Vala pushed the wheelchair through the building Cordelia had to smile. It seemed Daniel's friends were almost as quirky as her own. She heard the rest of the group following them, and focused her attention back on the question at hand. "Pizza, at this hour?"

"Sure! Pizza is good anytime!" The fact that it wasn't even 9 am yet didn't perturb Vala at all.

Cordelia tried another tactic. "Not sure if I can eat anything that solid yet. I have a concussion…"

"Oooh, those are nasty." Vala hissed in sympathy. "Have you tried a pizza-shake? I've heard they have these things called blenders which mash everything up into little bits!"

"_..heard of these things called blenders..."?? What the Hey? I'm pretty sure they have blenders in England…or wherever she's from. _"I don't know if I'd like a pizza shake." Now Cordelia was confused, in addition to being slightly nauseous.

"You have _got_ to try them." Cam Mitchell had come up alongside them and enthusiastically joined the conversation. "Awhile ago I was laid up for, like, 3 months, and let me tell you, it was the milkshakes and pizza-shakes that kept me sane."

"I believe 'sane' is debatable." Sam put in.

Cam ignored her, and continued. "Now, the best combo I've found is Olives, Pepperoni, and mushrooms…"

Cordelia, despite being amused by their interactions, couldn't help the questions that were forming in her brain. What kind of research did Daniel do that he and his research assistant had experience with concussions? What on earth was NORAD? Why would anyone want to eat mashed up pizza? And where in the world had Teal'c got that beanie? Because Cordelia really wanted one like it, just to wear until her hair grew out. Some people had heads where short hair really worked. Cordelia didn't feel she fit into that category. At this point, she wasn't really sure where she fit period, but it seemed Daniel was going to do his best to help her find out where she belonged.


	8. Cake and JellO

A/N: Well, here ya go. Another chunk of slightly funky character development, and interesting conversation between Daniel and Cordelia. Enjoy! The info I use about Egyptians and Native Americans is factual, and I mean no disrespect to any culture in any way. The views expressed herein are those of the characters and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author or it's parent corporation. Thank you. Also, to those of you who are wondering, I am going to work Cassie in soon, hopefully in the next chapter. Thanks for your reviews!

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Cordelia's head hurt. Not in a "nail through the head" kind of way, more in the dull, throbbing aching way; an "after you've been whomped on by an elephant" kind of pain. 

They'd all gone back to Daniel's (small!) house, and there was indeed a cake, it even had words on it. "Welcome, Cordelia!" It read in bright, red, sugary, frosting letters. When she saw it, she barely avoided retching as her stomach turned over. Guess after several days of hospital food she wasn't ready for the lard heavy icing they put on these store bought cakes. But, she smiled and said thank you, and just claimed she wasn't actually hungry, and that her stomach wasn't ready for that kind of food yet. They'd all nodded sympathetically, and then dug in themselves.

Now, 2 hours later, the party was winding down. Wound down, to be precise. Mitchell had left with Teal'c, said something about taking him back to base, and Vala and Sam were on their way out the door.

"It was nice to meet you, Cordelia. I hope our little party didn't wear you out." Sam said, a bit apologetically.

Cordelia could feel the fakeness in her replying smile and lied politely. "No, no, I feel fine. Thanks for the cake and everything."

Daniel gave them both a hug, Sam first and then Vala. When he tried to pull back from Vala she held on an extra moment.

Extricating himself from her hold, he grimaced. "Vala, I'll call you later this afternoon, okay?"

"You had better. Otherwise, don't expect to come back and find your office the way you left it." She pouted for a moment, and then in a blink of an eye her demeanor changed, and she flashed a quick grin at Daniel before giving him a peck on the cheek and racing outside to the car.

Sam held back a chuckle, and patted Daniel. "Don't worry, I'll make sure Nyan or someone keeps an eye on your office. Take care!" And she too headed for the car.

Daniel closed the door behind her and sank into the nearest chair. "Cordelia, I'm really sorry about all that—" he began, his features apologetic.

"Daniel, its fine. I just—" she grimaced and gingerly brought her hand up to the bandage on her head. "Where did you put the drugs?"

Daniel was all care and concern, and after giving her some Tylenol with Codeine, he showed her to her room and helped her get in bed. Since Delia had worn a comfy pair of sweats and a t-shirt for the trip home, she didn't bother going through the (now) arduous process of changing them for PJs. Besides, it wasn't like she'd never slept in these sweats before.

Once she was settled in, and Daniel had raided his living room for extra pillows for the spare bed, he sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, his demeanor clearly indicating a wish to talk.

Cordelia was not in the mood to talk. Sure, his friends had been nice, but they were kind of an eclectic bunch, and with all her aches and pains it had been rather annoying having to put on a friendly face when all she really wanted to do was sleep. At least when she was sleeping she didn't try to _think_ so much. Thoughts about what she was doing here, and what she was _going_ to do here had been bothering her all morning. Even though it was now only around 11 am Colorado time, her body's injuries in addition to jet lag demanded that it was time to check out for the day.

"Daniel, your friends were really nice to throw this party thing for me, but I'm tired, I'm in pain, and all I really want to do is sleep." The sharp words came out blunted by weariness, and Cordelia didn't care whether she was being rude, In the back of her mind a voice suggested that homesickness might be part of why she was feeling so poorly right now, but she ignored it.

Daniel stayed silent for a moment, and Delia couldn't tell what he was thinking. Whether it was the medicine, or just fatigue, her uncertainty about his reaction didn't bother her any longer than it took her to note the fact that he hadn't answered in over a minute.

"Okay. You can sleep now and we'll talk later when you're feeling better. I have some projects I'll be working on in the living room, so if you need anything, just holler." He stood up and looked at her seriously. "I should've said something to them earlier. It's not fair to you that you had to _endure_ a party you weren't enjoying and I should've known how wiped out you were." He paused and then muttered to himself. "It's not like I don't know what it's like."

"Stop worrying, I'm fine. Now go away." Cordelia scowled at the wall across from her. Normally she wasn't this short and pissy, but bruised ribs, a sprained wrist, an injured collarbone and a concussion tended to make a person act out a little. She would apologize once the bongo drums had stopped jamming inside her skull.

Daniel left silently, but returned a moment later with a glass of water and another pill. "Vicoden." He said with a wry grin. "Judging from the attitude, you need the big guns right now."

She muttered something that could have been a thank you, and swallowed the medicine with a drink of water.

"Have a good rest, Cordelia." Daniel said softly and carried out the empty glass, turning off the lights and closing the door gently on his way out.

Surrounded by darkness Cordelia sank deeper into her pillows. She tried to clear her mind and think of nothing, usually an unsuccessful endeavor. This time though, it worked, and she soon let go of the last shred of conscious thought…_it's too bad I couldn't eat that cake, it looked good_…  
--------------------------------  
Daniel sat in the living room, his laptop on his coffee table, and tried not to feel like a failure. For most of his life he'd fought that feeling, mostly unsuccessfully as Oma Desala had shown him during his death by radiation poisoning. After he came back he'd finally felt good about himself, and gained much more respect and trust in his own abilities.

But with Cordelia here…all his past relationships had ended in tragedy, at least all the personal ones. _Aside from SG-1_ he amended silently, with a mental knock on wood, _and General Hammond_. All the failures of his past that he'd thought he'd dealt with threatened to emerge once more. Angrily Daniel picked up the phone and punched a number on speed dial.

"O'Neill." The phone barked.

"Jack, what the hell have I gotten myself in to?"

"See, that's the question you should've asked yourself about ten years ago. It's too late to back out now, Daniel."

Daniel ground his teeth. "First thing I do, I let Mitchell and Sam throw a party. Which she hates!"

"Wait a minute, she didn't like the cake?!"

Deep breath. With forced calm Daniel replied "No, Jack. She couldn't _eat_ the cake. She only got out of the hospital yesterday. In fact, that should have been my first clue. I am a _moron!_"

"You're a moron with more letters behind your name than I've gotten in my mailbox all week. So, she couldn't eat the cake, what else has got you all freaked out?"

"Well, now she's overtired and hurting, no thanks to me." Daniel twiddled the pen in front of him and heaved a sigh. "I'm kind of worried about the concussion, to tell you the truth. The doctor said it was just a mild one, and it has been over 48 hours—"

"Try over 72."

"—but I just hope the traveling didn't make things worse, especially the plane trip."

"Didja give the base medic a call? I mean, true Dr. Lam's no Frasier, but she knows what she's doing."

"Landry did say something about letting her come over and have a look. I guess I'll call and see if she can come over tomorrow."

"Daniel, are you calmed down now, or do I need to send Carter over with some herbal tea."

"I'm fine. I guess…I just kinda panicked there for a moment. You know she sounds like you when she's tired and in pain. Pretty much told me to shut up and leave her the hell alone." A slight chuckle escaped him.

"What? Daniel, if she can yell at you liked that, you've got nothing to worry about! She'll be up and around in no time."

"Actually, that reminds me." Quickly shuffling through the folder of papers which kept the laptop company on the low table in front of him, Daniel began to explain his current work. "There's a really interesting manuscript I'm working on now, and the word 'up' reminded me. See, in this dialect there really is no 'up' only 'to ascend.' Now, what I'm thinking is that maybe these people had a better grasp of what Ascension means than we previously thought."

Before Daniel could really get going, Jack jumped in. "Fantastic, amazing, truly wondrous. This, Daniel, is part of the reason I love phones." And with that, he hung up; leaving Daniel in the early stages of what potentially could have been an hour long conversation. Besides, his phone bill was bad enough as it was.

Daniel glared at the phone and then set it down. For a moment he debated whether he should call Sam, but then he figured he'd just call her this evening, and tell her what happened. Not that anything _had_ happened, but Daniel still felt guilty about Cordelia's first day.

Well, the only way to go from here was up…speaking of which…. Daniel turned back to his notes and began typing up a preliminary report. Though Sam had made sure his home was clear of any surveillance materials, Daniel had intentionally requested this project so he wouldn't have to worry about breaching security. The manuscript was written in a derivative of the Ancient language, but as far as he could tell it contained no direct references to the Ori or the Stargate. Besides, even if someone looked at his notes, there wasn't much they would be able to get out of them without already knowing what ascension was, quite aside from the difficulty they would have deciphering his handwriting. However, the change in the language itself over time was fascinating in and of itself and had attracted his interest, let along what it actually talked about. Glancing at the clock Daniel saw that it was nearly 11:30. _Perfect_. He thought. _I'll finish up this page, grab a bite and check on Cordelia, and then I can come back and finish this report._

Naturally, the next time Daniel looked at the clock it was 4:30 in the afternoon, and he really had to pee.

Stretching the kinks out of his back, Daniel made his way to the bathroom, marveling at how quickly the time had passed. Maybe he was a workaholic.

On his way to check on Cordelia, Daniel grabbed the bottle of pain medicine and another glass of water. He was betting that the medication she'd taken this morning was starting to wear off by now.

Carefully he opened the door, checking to see if she was awake.

"I'm awake."

She was, in fact, awake. Daniel came in and left the door ajar slightly, so as to let in the light from the hallway. "Can I turn on the light?" He asked.

"Sure." Cordelia shut her eyes, and when the room behind her lids lit up, she kept them closed for a moment more before opening them up.

"Had a good nap?" Daniel set the water glass and medicine on the night table next to the bed.

"Yeah." Cordelia's had still ached, but during her rest the drummers had been evicted. (Evidently the Real Estate was prime and had a lot of prospective buyers.) She looked down at her lap, and said quietly. "I'm sorry I was rude earlier, I—"

Daniel cut her off, "Hey, trust me, I've gotten worse. " He paused thoughtfully. "From people in less pain, actually. Don't worry about it." A small growl interrupted him. Daniel looked down at his stomach "I meant to eat something, really. I just got distracted. That cake was a long time ago. Are you up to eating something?"

"I think I might be able to keep down some pudding or Jell-O. Do you have any applesauce?"

"I don't know." Daniel realized that though he'd asked Sam to get some groceries for him, he had no idea what she'd actually bought.

"Here." He helped her slowly sit up. "Do ya think you can make it to the kitchen?"

Cordelia was determined to; she was _not_ going to be wheeled around like a cripple. "Yeah. Let me just get used to being vertical…" After a moment sitting, she gingerly swung her legs over the side of the bed and gripped Daniel's arm tightly. "Okay." She breathed. "Let's do this."

Daniel kept an arm ready to catch her if she fell, but she managed to stand on her own. Well, if you ignore her white knuckled grip on Daniel's offered arm, she did it alone.

Slowly, step by step the maneuvered around the bed, out the door, and across the house to the kitchen. As they entered the kitchen, Daniel was supporting much of her weight with an arm around her, but she still doggedly paced on, until they reached a chair where she slumped down.

"Did the doctor tell _you_ anything about a stomach injury?" Cordelia demanded, clutching her middle. "Because something down there is very unhappy."

"No." Daniel said concernedly. "Where does it hurt?"

Cordelia pointed to a spot on the left side of her stomach.

Hesitant, Daniel crouched down next to the chair. "Do you want me to take a look at it?"

Cordelia paused, evaluating just how much it hurt. Worth making this much of a fuss over? "Um, sure. Just don't touch it, 'kay?" She had taken the medicine Daniel brought with him before they started their epic journey in search of food, but it apparently hadn't kicked in yet.

Carefully, Daniel lifted the hem of her shirt, and peered at the area she had indicated. Sure enough there on her side, slightly below and to the left of her belly button was a white gauze bandage. "Yeah, there's a bandage here. Doesn't look too serious though, probably just a superficial cut they stitched up." He determinedly pushed away the thought of just how awkward this was going to be with her injuries. If he could barely lift her shirt to check her stomach, how on earth was he going to handle changing the bandage on her bruised ribs? Not to mention bathing…

Muttering something about 'crackpot doctors,' Delia sighed. "Crap. Another injury, this whole thing gets worse all the time. No offense…" Cordelia realized what she said and immediately felt bad. "I didn't mean you, or anything—"

Daniel waved away the apology. "How about some breakfast, you still up for applesauce?" He opened the cupboards and examined the contents briefly, then opened the fridge, crossing his fingers that Sam was a mind reader as well as a genius. "Thank you, Sam." He pulled out a dish covered in plastic wrap. "How does Jell-o sound?"

"Great, thanks." She stared as Daniel grabbed two bowls from the dishwasher, and dished out the blue gelatin into them. "I don't think I've ever had the blue kind. Orange and red, yes, and once green, but I guess the blue didn't test well in Massachusetts." She tried making small talk, not really aware of what she was saying.

"Blue and Red are the best, according to Sam and Jack. I myself have always been partial to the orange, though we don't have that much on base. Yellow's also pretty good."

_I cannot believe I am having a conversation about _Jell-O colors _with my father!! _The whole situation was kind of surreal. "Not bad." She said, taking a spoon full from the bowl Daniel set in front of her.

"So, do you want to talk now?"

"It's a good a time as any."

"Yeah…" Daniel poured them both glasses of water, before sitting down across from her with his own bowl. "Okay, ground rules. I'll be working on projects here a lot of the time, but occasionally I'll have to go to Base to do stuff, so you might be stuck with one of my friends, possibly an airman occasionally."

Cordelia nodded. She hadn't really expected him to put his life on hold. Not that he had much of a life. From what she had observed in her short stay so far, Daniel's house was full of artifacts and old stuff, but he had only a few pictures of his friends, and none of his family. In fact, she hadn't heard anything about his family at all yet.

"Most of my projects are classified, but if you are interested, I'm sure I can find something for you to help me with." He looked at Cordelia, watching her response.

"Uh, sure. That'd be fine." Cordelia wasn't sure how she felt about being drafted as an assistant. _I mean, it's not like I have any plans or anything_.

"It'll just be for a little while, until you're well enough to go and do stuff on your own."

"Yeah, okay."

"Have you thought about what you want to do, after you get all healed up?"

Cordelia restrained the sarcastic reply of 'yeah, duh!' which came to mind. "Yeah, I have a little. I guess I should go to some kind of college or vocational school, but I don't really have any ideas."

Daniel took another spoonful of jell-o, and ate it slowly as she spoke. "Well, what are you interested in?"

She set her spoon down on the table and stared into her bowl for a moment, then sighed heavily. "That's just it, Daniel. I don't know." The amount of emotion in her voice surprised her. She hadn't meant to share that much of herself yet. "I mean-" 'Delia paused, unsure where she was going with this. "How did you know what you wanted to do with your life?" She asked a question to give herself time to think.

"My parents were archeologists, I think I told you, and I guess I always knew I wanted to follow in their footsteps. What did your mom do?" Daniel fidgeted with his spoon. He realized that he had never really known Harmony that well. She had been an English major when she dropped out of school, but he couldn't remember anything else about her, and could barely picture her in his mind's eye.

"Whatever she could. She worked as an editor for the local paper for most of my life. She was kind of disappointed in me when I never showed any aptitude for reading or writing."

"You don't like to read?" Daniel tried to conceal the shock he felt at this revelation. Nowhere in any of his far-fetched scenarios had he imagined any child of his disliking the written word.

"I don't mind it, but I just never found anything that interested me." Cordelia shrugged slightly. From Daniel's reaction she guessed she'd disappointed him in this respect as well as her mother. Fantastic, now she had failed both her parents. At this depressing thought she gave herself a mental shake. _Come on, Cordelia! It's only the first day of this; you can't go getting all depressed now!_ "I mean, during high school I was kinda caught up with my mom's death, so I didn't pay much attention to academics, just did what I had to to get done."

"How are you with computers?" Daniel scraped the sides of his dish and scooped up the last bits of jell-o from his bowl.

"I'm not a whiz kid if that's what you mean. I can do the basic stuff, but no hacking. And I'm not that great at art, music, or sports either." As she spoke, Cordelia realized just how bitter she sounded.

"Neither am I." Daniel grinned. "Come on, Cordelia, we'll figure out something you like. But for now, if you can find your way around a computer, I've got some files for you to organize when you feel ready to do something besides watch TV."

Slightly reassured by Daniel's optimism, Cordelia allowed herself a small smile and finished her own jell-o. "Do you have cable?"

"Just the basic package. Despite Jack's urgings, I have no desire to have three channels of ESPN, and 15 News networks are fine by me."

"History Channel?"

"Of course! And Discovery actually has some good programs on now and then too."

"Sweet. Mom and I never had cable. But I always watched Animal Planet whenever we'd stay somewhere that did." It had been a long time since she'd watched Animal Planet, it seemed like another lifetime.

"Animal Planet. Any future in the zoological fields for you?"

"Not likely. Had a hamster once, killed it. After that, no more pets. What about you, have any pets?"

"No, I did have some fish for awhile, but I think my assistant flushed them." Daniel blushed a little. "I have trouble remembering to eat, myself, let alone remembering to feed some fish." He explained.

"Ah." There was a lull in the conversation.

Cordelia looked down at her empty bowl, hoping that somewhere in the bits of orange gelatin clinging to the sides of the dish she would find out what the future had in store for her, since she certainly didn't know.

"I know some people read tea leaves, and occasionally animal entrails to find out the future, but I've never heard of using jell-o for divination." Daniel commented, watching her.

Cordelia blushed, embarrassed that her face had been so easy to read. "I don't like tea, and animal guts are gross." She replied, trying for a lighthearted response.

"Coffee's always been my poison of choice, but I'll take a cup of tea now and then." Daniel got up and cleared the dishes. "Speaking of which, do you want anything else to drink?"

"Got any laudanum?" She said dryly. Her side was starting to bother her again. When she was concentrating on something else, like eating jell-o without dumping it in her lap, the pain didn't bother her, but she could definitely feel it now. Stupid useless pain medication.

Daniel paused and turned away from the sink to face her. "Laudanum? I though you weren't interested in history?"

Minimal shrug. "Not particularly, but Mom made me watch all these Civil War documentaries. Learned about laudanum then."

"Did you know they used a similar opiate-based drug in Ancient Egypt? They used it to calm crying children."

"No, really?"

"Laudanum was used for the same purpose up until the 20th century, actually."

Despite herself Cordelia was interested. Though it was true she'd never really cared about ancient history in school, the way Daniel talked about it made it sound interesting and almost exciting.

From ancient drugs they moved on to funerary rights, mummification as well as the customs of other civilizations across the globe. Cordelia couldn't help but notice that Daniel had paused slightly before describing the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis, but she was quickly distracted by his description of the mummification process. When Daniel started talking about Native American funerary customs Cordelia began to realize just how much they'd skipped in her high-school history classes.

"You mean they put dead bodies up in trees?" She must have missed that class. Come to think of it, she'd never really had a class that talked about Native American culture, just the snippets of information she got in the course of her U.S. History class. _There's irony for you_, she thought. "What happens to the canoe with the body in it if there's a storm or something?"

Daniel shrugged. "Well, they would be sure to secure the canoe properly to prevent anything from happening, but I suppose there might have been some incidents. It was primarily tribes from the Plains, and a few groups in the Northwest who would bury their dead in that way, and I don't think they worried about tornadoes."

Cordelia shuddered. "Still. Now I'm gonna have this great picture of dead people next time I hear that song, 'it's raining men.'"

A grin manifested itself on Daniel's face. "I have never thought of that before. But now I know how to stop Sam from making us sing Karaoke next team night."

"She makes you guys sing Karaoke?" The detached part of her mind realized that she'd just spent the last 20 minutes talking to an adult about history, and that it hadn't been painful, almost enjoyable. "She seemed nice!"

"Don't let the innocent exterior fool you, she can be an _evil_ genius if she puts her mind to it."

"That reminds me, just what _does_ a…" Cordelia paused and tried to remember what Daniel had said Sam was a doctor of. "… 'theoretical astrophysicist' do, anyway?"

"Deep space radar telemetry." Daniel replied immediately.

Cordelia didn't have much experience dealing with military types, despite living quite close to an air field, but she recognized an automatic response when she heard it. "What on earth does _that_ mean?"

"Um, she studies what is seen through telescopes like the Hubble, and other deep space radar images, and does mathematical equations to try and learn stuff about the solar system and our galaxy. I guess. I'm just an archeologist, so I don't really know exactly what she does."

"And she's also in the Air Force?"

"Yeah, she's a Lieutenant Colonel."

"Cool. So why do you two work together?"

"Ah…I'm afraid that's classified."

_Wait, did he really just say that? _"Classified? As in, Top Secret, government conspiracy, Classified?" In her eager gaze it appeared that Daniel squirmed slightly in his seat. At any rate his expression indicated his intense discomfort with the turn the conversation had taken. "A little melodramatic, don't you think? Couldn't you just have said, 'none of your business'?"

"I'd tell you if I could, Cordelia, I'm just trying to be upfront with you here. And not everything 'classified' is part of a government conspiracy or cover-up." Daniel protested.

Cordelia decided to save the matter for contemplation later, and let Daniel off the hook for the time being. _Classified, eh? Definitely something we'll have to look into…_

"Well, speaking of classified and government conspiracies, do you have that one movie with Sean Connery in it?"

"James Bond? Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? That's kind of a broad description, help me out here."

"Um, has a blonde chick in it?"

"I don't know. To be honest, I doubt I've even seen it. I don't tend to watch a lot of TV. How about we go to the living room to see what I've got?"

Another slow trip to the living room, though it was easier than the previous journey, and Cordelia rested on the couch as Daniel called out movie titles from where he crouched by the television.

She finally settled on "To Kill a Mockingbird," after turning down multiple documentaries, Star Wars episodes 4-6 ("Teal'c really likes Star Wars, so we figured we might as well just buy the good ones so we wouldn't have to keep renting them." Cordelia noticed Daniel didn't specify just who 'we' incorporated but she thought she had a pretty good idea of who he meant.), and two Indiana Jones movies. ("I've only watched these once, but I got them for a Christmas present years ago.") There was also a home video on the shelf, marked "Cassie's 13th birthday," that she caught site of but didn't ask about since Daniel had offered no explanation. He did however, groan when he pulled out a VHS tape marked "Simpson's/AHL". "Jack! You don't even live in the same state anymore and you're still cluttering up my house!"

Cordelia couldn't resist a glance around the room at the muttered remark. Clutter? That was a good work in her mind for the numerous small statues, plaques, relics, and ancient artifacts that could be found in every corner and on almost every surface in Daniel's house.

"Okay, I'll leave you to your movie. I need to go finish my project anyway. Do you need anything else right now?" Daniel turned on the television and handed Cordelia the remote control.

"Nah, I think I'm okay. I'll yell if I need something."

"You do that. Enjoy the movie, it's a good one."

"Yeah, the book actually wasn't too bad, considering the other required reading." _And this one I actually read! _She added to herself. Carefully settling, she accidentally hit one of her many bruises on the arm of the couch. She hissed softly in pain. _Who knew couches could be so painful? These injuries better heal quick, I'm gonna _die_ if these are he only movies I'll be watching for the next six weeks!_


	9. Standalone chapter: Damnation

A/N: This is just a brief interlude story that happens sometime in the months after Cordelia moves in with Daniel. Its just kind of a "day in the life" type thing: Cordelia has a bad day and takes it out on Daniel. Mostly I justed wanted to work in the phrase "Go to Hell!" Enjoy!

* * *

Coming into his living room and dropping off the satchel with his work in it, Daniel's attention was caught by a faint sound. He paused to listen and heard a soft whimper from Cordelia's bedroom. Concerned, he crossed to the door and slowly, quietly opened it a few inches to peer inside. Cordelia lay face down on her bed, face in the pillow. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed, though the sound was muffled by the fabric of the pillow which covered her mouth.

_Uh, oh...Maybe I should call Sam, she's much better at dealing with this sort of thing than I am…_ Daniel thought worriedly.

Cordelia turned on her side, and curled up in a near-fetal position, and Daniel could see the anguish written on her features.

_No time to wait, I'll give he a quick call, and then go help 'Delia myself._ Hitting the speed dial on his cell phone, Daniel got Sam's voice mail. "Sam, I hope you get this soon. Uh, Cordelia's not feeling so great and I was wondering if you might be able to come and talk with her about it…whatever 'it' is. I'm really not cut out for this sort of thing. So, um, I hope to hear from you soon." He stepped towards the door, opened it and walked into the room, closing it softly after him. Cordelia was curled around the pillow, eyes damp from tears, staring at nothing.

"Delia? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine…" She muttered, but her voice caught and she had trouble speaking with out sobbing. She rolled away from Daniel and covered her face with the pillow.

Daniel sat down on the edge of the bed, and didn't say anything for a moment. It wasn't that he was trying to calm her down, or gain her acceptance with his silence; he simply had no idea what to say. "What's wrong?" He finally asked.

"My life sucks! And _everything_ is wrong!" The words were muffled but Daniel clearly heard the pain behind them.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly, knowing the words meant nothing to the distraught young woman.

"Why are you sorry? Did you make my grandparents go nuts? Did you drive the car that hit me? Are you the guy who-" She stopped abruptly.

Every alarm bell Daniel possessed, and in his line of work there were quite a few, began going off in his mind at this. "What guy, Cordelia?" He asked, keeping his voice even.

"Just some asshole who was bugging me at work." Cordelia had gotten a part time job at the local library thanks to Daniel's connections; it was mostly just filing stuff and answering phones. Not great, but it beat working at a grocery store.

"Okay. Well." Daniel pulled out his cell. "Can you give me a description? I'm sure Teal'c will be happy to have a word with him."

"No, don't!" Cordelia sat up and grabbed the phone away from him. "Stop it! I don't need you protecting me! I'm 19 years old!"

"Cordelia, if some guy's giving you crap, it's my right to deal with it. It kinda goes with being your dad!"

"Well I don't _need_ you to be my dad! I did fine for 18 years without one. Why do you feel the need to take care of me every single minute!" Cordelia was so angry she wasn't sure if the dampness on her face was from her earlier sob-fest, or if they were tears of anger leaking from her reddened eyes. She shouldn't let some jerk set her off like this. She was an adult; she could handle these kinds of situations! So why was she acting like an angsty, rebellious teenager? "I can take care of myself! I don't need anyone else!" She cried, though for a moment she wasn't sure if it was Daniel she was trying to convince or herself.

"Yes, you do." Daniel contradicted her firmly. "Trust me. Even if you think you're doing fine by yourself, you can't get through life without letting other people help you."

"Where do you get off preaching to me? At least you had foster parents to be there when your folks died!"

"Cordelia, listen to me, I'm trying to help!" Daniel was losing patience; it had been a long day for him as well. "Stop being so antagonistic and stop for a minute to think about what you're saying. Yes, you've suffered and I understand it wasn't easy, but you've to move on at some point!"

"GO TO HELL!" Cordelia yelled, and threw his cell phone at the door, where it shattered upon impact.

"Already been there!" Daniel replied sharply. There was a pause. Finally he bent to pick up the pieces of the phone that had landed on the ground in front of him. "We'll talk about this later." He opened the door and paused, looking back at the wet and blotched face of his daughter. "And you owe me a new phone."

Cordelia wiped her face with her hands. She hadn't meant to react like that! Maybe Daniel was right to treat her like a child, considering she had just thrown a first-class tantrum. "Sorry…" She whispered to the closed door. Such was her distraction that it wasn't until the next morning that she remembered Daniel's reply to her damnation. _"Already been there"? And here I thought he said he'd been happily married. What on earth was he talking about?_ Some day, she resolved, she would ask him about it. Some day when he wasn't still angry about the phone…


	10. Many Faceted

And now back to your regularly schedule program! Here's just another tid-bit to tide you over for the next couple of days. When we last left our heroine, she was laid up on the couch lamenting Daniel's pitiful collection of amusements. Then we took a quick trip to the future in the last chapter to observe Cordelia having a bad day, but now we are back to the first days of their cohabitation, as Cordelia learns more about this man she moved in with. Thanks for your reviews and I'll try to write more soon!

* * *

Luckily for Cordelia, the next two weeks did indeed involve a trip to Blockbuster Video for more selections to waste/spend time watching while she healed. The days also included some form of a lecture from Daniel on whatever topic he was interested in at the moment, and Cordelia had, to her astonishment, actually _learned_ stuff. She now knew several words in Latin, Greek, and Chinese. (As a Firefly fan she'd longed to understand the character's swearing, and she convinced Daniel to translate for her once she'd dug the DVDs out of her luggage. That is, Daniel had done the actual digging, but she'd ordered the pizza in return, so it was a fair trade from her perspective.) She also finally worked up the nerve to ask about the random artifacts scattered around the house. Evidently each one was not only valuable for itself and the history it represented, but also was connected to a particular dig or archeological expedition, and a special memory for Daniel. 

"Also I'm too cheap to go down to Ikea and buy any kind of decorative thing, so I just bring home things from work to fill up space." He'd added at the end of his explanation.

Cordelia was quickly learning that Dr. Daniel Jackson was a complicated person. Living with the man for two weeks, she'd already noticed his often sarcastic sense of humor and his compassion. But she got a glimpse of a darkly serious side one day when he got a call on his cell phone in the early afternoon.

"Daniel Jackson." He'd been going through some ancient tomes he'd had Lieutenant Carter bring over the day before, and from her position on the couch Cordelia could see his brows drawn together. Clearly the work was not going well. As she, completely unintentionally, eavesdropped on the call, Cordelia had the feeling that the situation wasn't going to improve anytime soon.

"No, nothing we haven't already seen……..First of all, this isn't a completely secure line, secondly, that's not going to work…..Yes, I know, that's what Sam and I came up with….They're doing all they can, Mitchell. Look what they're doing for Daedelus…. Yeah…..What? No, what happened? …..Cooper's team? All of them?"

Cordelia felt a cold shiver run down her spine, and grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch to stave off the goosebumps which had suddenly appeared on her arms. She felt nearly as cold as Daniel's next words-

"Vala was wrong. I should have killed her when I had the chance…." He hung up the phone abruptly and without even looking her way stood up and walked into his room.

The "snap" of the closing cell phone had made Cordelia jump slightly, but she quickly shut her eyes and feigned sleep when he stood up, although it wasn't necessary. He seemed to have forgotten her presence all together.

The next day Daniel had apologized for frightening her and being rude, and gave her an explanation about a terrorist organization they were trying to take down.

Cordelia nodded and accepted the explanation without question, though her mind screamed _Why is an archeologist involved in anti-terrorism activities??_ She never forgot, however, the tone of his voice during the end of that call, and mentally added "dangerous" to the epithets one could use for Daniel Jackson.

It was another phone call a few days later that introduced Cordelia to another member of Daniel's "family." From what she'd observed, (and asked Daniel) about his social life, his teammates, especially Sam, Teal'c and Jack, were his family. Back in the hospital, Cordelia's image of family had moms and dads and brothers and sisters and grandparents in it. When she'd asked Daniel about it back then, all she thought of was how sad and lonely it must be to have both parents dead, and then to lose your wife, too. She hadn't asked about grandparents, maybe because she'd figured that they must be dead by now too. But now that she'd lived with Daniel and gotten to know the people he worked and hung out with, she had begun to see that family was about much more than biology or legal recognition.

This time it was the land line that rang, interrupting a light lunch. It was light mostly because Daniel had forgotten to go shopping the day before, and Cordelia had had a bad day with the broken arm, and had spent that day in her room listening to music, so she forgot to remind him. Both of them were rather forgetful of the day to day necessities, evidently the independent responsibility Cordelia had mustered in the weeks before the accident had fled along with her sense of immortality.

Daniel hurriedly abandoned his ham sandwich and picked up the receiver. "Daniel Jackson."

Cordelia poked at the brown mush on her plate. It was the remains of the chili they'd had last night, and even then it had been only slightly more appetizing. _Maybe it was Sam calling to say she'd be bringing pizza over later_, Cordelia though hopefully.

"Cassie!"

The exclamation caught 'Delia off guard. _Where had she heard or seen that name before?_

"Yeah, that's right. When did you last talk to him? …..Really? Congratulations, Cass!"

From the sound of the conversation, whoever Cassie was, Daniel was certainly glad to hear from her...

TBC!


	11. Cardboard and Corgis

I'm back! I'm seriously going to try and finish this story, and I do have a general idea of how to do that, the problem, of course, is in the details. BUT, here's a bit more of what's going on in Cordelia's world... Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed! Without you, I would have never even gotten this far.

* * *

_Cordelia poked at the brown mush on her plate. It was the remains of the chili they'd had last night, and even then it had been only slightly more appetizing. _Maybe it was Sam calling to say she'd be bringing pizza over later_, Cordelia thought hopefully.  
"Cassie!"  
The exclamation caught 'Delia off guard. _Where had she heard or seen that name before?_  
"Yeah, that's right. When did you last talk to him? ….Of course...Really? Congratulations, Cass!"  
From the sound of the conversation, whoever Cassie was, Daniel was certainly glad to hear from her..._

"Yes, she's here. Of course…." He covered the phone with his hand and turned to face her. "Cassie says 'hi,'"

"Um, hi." Delia replied in bewilderment.

"Listen, Cassie, can you call back later? I have to do a grocery run pretty soon here, but if I'm out you can leave a message with Cordelia…okay; I'll put it on my calendar….You, too. Bye." He hung up the phone and leaned against the counter. "I'm sure you're wondering who that was," Daniel began.

Cordelia couldn't help herself. "Well, you're just a master of observation, aren't you?"

"Curious and snarky, what do you know, you really are my offspring. _That_ was Cassandra Frasier. She's only a few years older than you actually, so you two will probably get along. She's the daughter of an old friend." He explained. "She was calling to let me know she'll be in town soon. She just finished her final semester at college, done with the first round of pre-med."

"She's studying to be a doctor?"

"Yes. Her mom was also a doctor, and Cassie decided to follow in her footsteps."

Cordelia caught the past tense reference to Cassie's mom, and felt a pang of sympathy. "That's cool. I could never do that much school. Leia though about it for awhile, but decided even the big paychecks weren't worth it."

"It's not about the money for her. Cassie just wants to honor her mom's memory in the best way she can, by carrying on the work she did. Janet saved a lot of lives while at the S-, at the base."

"Mmm." Mumbled Delia. She'd caught Daniel's almost-slip of the tongue and was too preoccupied in trying to figure out what he had been going to say to answer properly.

"So, hopefully by the time she gets in we'll have some food to offer her besides left-overs."

"Great." Cordelia turned back to the food, or what passed for food, on her plate. "Hey Daniel, can we get some Mac and Cheese?"

"Sure. Here, make a list of what you want." He handed her a pad of paper and a pencil, and went to grab his jacket and his wallet. "I am not getting beer, so don't even ask!" He called back.

"What do you take me for?" She hollered out of the kitchen. As she wrote down a list of foods easily cooked in a microwave, Cordelia mused that never in her fantasies of normal family life had she imagined this scenario. Then again, there was a lot she hadn't considered, for instance, getting to know all the family friends and relations on her dad's side of the family. Despite her concerns about meeting new people, Cordelia was excited about getting a chance to meet someone around her own age. So far, her life in Colorado consisted of Daniel and his friends, phone calls to Mel and Leia back home, and the occasional chat with the pizza delivery boy or girl. _Maybe I can convince Daniel to let me go out with Cassie to a movie or something. I'm seriously going stir crazy._

Cordelia's injuries were healing well, and the last check-up by Dr. Lam had gone smoothly, and no complications had come up with the concussion or broken collar bone. In fact, everything was going swimmingly, and Daniel had promised that we would keep an eye open for a part time job for her so she'd have something to occupy her time before she started school again. School was still the ultimate plan, but it Cordelia had decided that it wouldn't hurt anyone if she waited a year or so before working out the details of her schooling options.

'Delia's stomach burbled, bringing her back to the here and now. _Definitely need to get some jerky..._ she decided, finishing up her part of the grocery list. "Okay! I'm done with the list. Did Cassie say what day she was coming?"

Daniel came in and took the list, glancing over it briefly. "Ice cream, granola bars, Mountain Dew? I can't promise I'll get all this, 'Delia. You know, there's this thing called "protein," maybe you've heard of it."

"I wrote down jerky too, that's protein!" Delia protested. "And you didn't answer my question."

"Um, she said something about Monday or Tuesday, but she also promised to call back." Daniel looked at the list once more and shook his head. "Okay, next time we make the list together. I'll be back in about an hour."

"'Kay." She got up slowly and made her way back to the living room, walking him to the door. "Don't forget the frozen chicken nuggets. They're really good for when you don't have time to cook!"

Daniel gave a bright, false smile and a wave as he headed out the door. "I can't believe anyone actually eats those cardboard things…" She heard him mutter.

Cordelia made her way to the couch and picked up the one photo album she had convinced Daniel to dig up. He'd given in enough to get it out for her, but since not all the pictures were labeled and he hadn't sat down and gone through it with her, Cordelia still didn't really know who everyone was. She opened to a random page in the middle at looked at the smiling faces in the photographs. Flipping through slowly, she marveled at the different hairstyles Daniel and his friends had sported throughout the years. She had nearly laughed out loud the first time she saw a picture of Daniel with his long hair and large round glasses. He was such a goofy looking guy back then!

Lost in her thoughts, Delia examined each page of the photo album slowly. She wasn't sure precisely what she was looking for. She knew that there wouldn't be any pictures of her parents together, after all, Daniel had only gone with her mom for a short time, and they'd never reconnected after the breakup. Maybe she was just trying to get to know Daniel better. Even after living with him for nearly three weeks, there was so much about him she didn't know. What was his favorite color? How many languages _did_ he actually speak? The phone rang, startling Delia out of her reverie. She watched the phone, listening to another two rings before getting up the nerve to answer it. This was where she lived, but it wasn't her home, not yet, and it felt weird to be answering the phone as if she had a right to. She had the bizarre urge to answer the phone like a secretary. _"Daniel Jackson's house, how can I help you?"_ Instead she picked up the receiver with a cautious, "Hello?"

"Hi! Are you Cordelia?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm Cassandra Frasier. It's great to get to talk to you!"

Wondering what she could say to this woman, Cordelia's gaze wandered around the living room, taking in the TV and the stack of VHS tapes underneath it…and suddenly something clicked. "Oh! You're that Cassie!" She said in surprise.

The voice on the other end of the phone line sounded amused. "Yes, I expect I am. What's Daniel said about me?"

"No, it's not that, I mean, he didn't say anything bad about you." Cordelia stammered. "It's just…when I first got here I saw a home video labeled 'Cassie's 13th birthday' and I never got around to asking Daniel what it was."

Cassandra groaned. "Oh, please don't tell me he still has that!"

Cordelia grinned. "Well, he hasn't shown it, so I think you're safe."

"No, you don't understand. I'm adopted, I'm not sure if he mentioned that, and that was my first birthday party with my Mom here in Colorado. I was such a little punk! …Hey, is that the one with my dog on it?" Cassandra sighed. "He was a corgi and absolutely adorable. He died a few years later, and I was just devastated."

"I don't know. Do you want me to check?"

"I've got a better idea. How about when I come by next week we can watch it together?"

"Sounds good!" And it truly did. Cordelia couldn't wait to get a glimpse into Daniel's life apart from his work. "Do you think you could talk Daniel into letting me go out, too? I mean, I've still got some injuries from the car crash I was in, but I'm getting cabin fever over here."

"You bet." Cassandra's voice lowered. "Don't tell anyone I told you, but when it comes to any one of Daniel and his friends, they can't refuse me anything." Her voice went back to normal. "I blame it on the fact that none of them ever had children of their own, and pretty much watched over me as I grew up."

"Oh." Cordelia said, rather taken aback. When Daniel had said "friend of the family" she assumed it was just kind of a general thing, but Cassandra made it sound like a much closer relationship.

"Oh, no, Cordelia, I'm sorry!" Cassandra had noticed the quietness of the reply. "That was incredibly rude of me…I don't even know what to say!" She sounded genuinely upset. "I didn't even think…I am so sorry."

"No, please, it's okay. It's not anyone's fault but my mom's that Daniel never knew I existed until a month ago." _And _that_ didn't sound bitter at all!_ Cordelia railed at herself.

"What a way to make a first impression." Cassandra said dryly, with self-deprecating humor. "Cordelia, everything I've heard about you says you're a great girl, and I'm really looking forward to meeting you in person next week."

"Me, too." Cordelia sighed and shifted herself on the couch. "Daniel's out right now, but he should be back pretty soon. Do you want me to have him call you back?"

"Oh, no, that's okay. I'll be flying in Monday evening, so I was going to ask him to pick me up at the airport. I'll give you guys a call when I know what time we're landing."

"Okay, I'll let him know." Cordelia felt she should say something to alleviate the tension hanging in the air, but didn't know what. "Cassandra?" She tried.

"Please, call me Cassie."

"Cassie, what was your dog's name?" 'Delia asked, rather shyly. "My grandparents had a corgi named George, and he was a great dog."

'Delia heard the grin in Cassie's voice. "His name was Dog for the first couple of months, but then I named him after a television character, on the advice of Jack. Mom wasn't too happy about having a dog named Homer, but all the kids at school thought it was great."

"I'll bet!"

"Well, I hate to run off here, but I have some things to do before I visit, so I'll say goodbye now."

"That's fine. It was nice to talk to you, I'm glad you'll be coming down next week."

"Yep, I'll see you then. Bye Cordelia!"

"Bye!" 'Delia hung up the phone and stared at it in her hand for a moment. She was more interested to meet Cassie now than ever before. _A corgi named Homer. I've got to tell Leia and Mel!_

Cordelia dialed the phone, hoping her friends didn't have class...


	12. Cassandra's Here!

A/N: I'm back!! I have not forgotten this story, but its been hard to find time to work on it, what with Real Life and my other stories demanding my attention. But at any rate, here's a bit more of Cordelia's new life, when she finally gets to meet Cassandra Frasier!

* * *

The next few days seemed an eternity, and Cordelia felt like she was a kid again, counting down the hours until Christmas morning. She knew it was silly, but after talking to Cassie on the phone, 'Delia felt like she was waiting for the return of a good friend, not a first meeting with a stranger. Finally, the day of reckoning arrived, so to speak.

Cassie's flight was scheduled to arrive at 10 in the morning, so Daniel and Cordelia got up with enough time to actually sit down and eat breakfast, although Cordelia stomach was so full of butterflies she could barely choke down the cereal.

"How's the arm this morning?" Daniel asked, as they got into the car. His doctor friend had paid a visit over the weekend, and had commented that it seemed to be healing well, but it was at the phase when all Cordelia wanted to do was rip off the cast and scratch her arm.

"It's good. It was bothering me last night when I was trying to get to sleep, but I just imagined you were telling me about that culture which had the elaborate dining ceremonies, and it did the trick."

Daniel looked at her in mock hurt, "You used my valuable knowledge as a cure for insomnia?"

Cordelia grinned at him. "Of course, what else would I use it for?"

"You know, you could help me out with some of my work." Daniel focused his attention back on the road. "You seem to have a good memory for information, and I always have things that need organizing."

"No offense, Daniel, but if it's all the same to you, I like this whole vacation thing, especially now that Cassie's here to hang out with." Cordelia leaned back in her seat, and looked sideways at him to determine his reaction.

"That's fine. It's just something to think about for the future. Actually, that reminds me, I have an assignment later this week, and I'll be gone for a couple of days so I asked Cassie to hold the fort while I'm away."

"Fine with me!" Cordelia tried to contain her glee. It wasn't that she wanted Daniel to leave, but it'd be much less awkward getting to know Cassie on her own than if Daniel was there mediating.

The pulled up at the airport loading area, and saw that Cassie's flight was only ten minutes behind schedule. Daniel decided they would park and go inside to wait for their visitor. As they waited, Cordelia gingerly asked Daniel what had happened to Cassie's real family, that she hadn't been adopted until she was 12. Daniel just shrugged, commenting that he hadn't taken in by foster parents for the long term until he was nearly 12, even though his parents had died when he was 8.

Cordelia pondered this for awhile in silence. Truth be told, she had almost forgotten that Daniel himself had hardly had a "normal" childhood. In fact, who in the world did? _Let's face it,_ she told herself. _"Normal" is a just a load of crap_.

Daniel's cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID, and answered it. "Daniel Jackson."

Cordelia picked at a stain on the seat, thinking about how she, Cassie, and Daniel were three of a kind in a lot of ways.

"'Delia I have to take this outside, stay here and wait for Cassandra, okay? She's about average height, brown hair, said she'd be wearing the green jacket Sam picked out for her last time she visited."

Before she could ask anything, Daniel had left her, heading out the automatic glass double doors of the airport waiting area. "What?" She asked to his retreating back. "Maybe I should make a sign…" She muttered sarcastically to herself, but inside she was kind of proud that Daniel trusted her and thought enough of her that he'd have faith in her ability to recognize a total stranger in a crowded airport. It was a twisted sort of compliment, but somehow it suited Cordelia just fine.

Before she could muse further on the strange workings of her own mind, a young woman came towards her, pulling a rolling suitcase behind her. "Cordelia?" She called.

"Yes. Are you Cassandra?" 'Delia stood up to greet her. "How did you recognize me?"

"I looked for a girl with short hair and a cast who looked like she was waiting for someone." Cassie grinned, and parked her luggage. "Daniel told me about your injuries."

Cordelia smiled back, blushing slightly. "Oh." _There goes my theory about Daniel's faith in my abilities…_

"Where is Daniel?" Cassie looked around the waiting area, which was conspicuously empty of a bespectacled archeologist.

"He had to take a phone call and went outside for a moment." Remembering the manners her grandparents had drilled into her, Cordelia stepped forward, "Can I help with your bags? We can get Daniel on the way to the car."

"Oh, Cordelia, don't worry about my stuff! You have broken arm!" Cassie was touched by the offer. "I've only got this rolling suitcase and my backpack, I'll be fine." With a reassuring smile she gestured for Cordelia to lead the way. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright."

"What do you think of Colorado?"

"It's okay, I mean, I haven't really had a chance to get out and see the sights, but it seems to be a pretty nice place." Cordelia shrugged slightly. They made it through the automatic doors, and stopped on the sidewalk outside.

Daniel caught sight of them and waved, his face lighting up with a grin as he saw Cassandra. Finishing the call quickly, he came over and gave the young woman a big hug. "Cassie! You look great!" "Thanks Daniel, you too!"

Watching them, Delia couldn't help the pang of envy she felt at the joy evident on their faces, but resolutely pushed it aside. She was _not_ going to be jealous of Cassandra. _I am going to have fun with this visit_, she thought determinedly, _we all will_.

As they drove home, Daniel and Cassandra caught up on the news of people they both knew, and although Delia only knew a few of the names, she wasn't bored. Daniel also mentioned a few places they would have to visit while Cassandra was here, although Delia was lost when he mentioned a zoo and they both cracked up laughing. Evidently there was no zoo, and this was somehow amusing…. _Inside joke._ She thought. _I guess I should get used to them_...

In the end, there weren't as many inside jokes as Cordelia had feared. Daniel was conscious of his daughter and her unfamiliarity with them, and somehow managed to include her in the fun. Even when it excluded him, since he had to spend much of her visit at work. While Cassandra was in Colorado Springs, Delia enjoyed a significant amount of quality time with Daniel's 'niece,' and went to the mall for the first time in far too long. While they were there, Cassie took her to get a hair cut, having decided a pixie cut would make the best of Delia's butchered locks. In addition to shopping and hair care, she taught the younger woman how to play chess. Surprising herself, Delia found she actually enjoyed the strategic board game. Previously, she had always considered chess a boring game for old people, but when Cassie introduced the idea one evening, she had reluctantly agreed to a lesson, and found herself intrigued.

One afternoon after Daniel had left for his big project, Cassandra surprised her by suggesting a girl's night in. They had been watching movies every night, and generally just hanging out, but what Cassandra was suggesting was more along the lines of the traditional girly slumber-party.

"What, just the two of us?" Delia was slumped on the couch, flipping through an archeology magazine Daniel had left on the coffee table. It wasn't that she had suddenly discovered a calling or anything, but on the cover was a very pretty vase and she'd wanted to find out where it was from. Pure curiosity, nothing else. Really, that was all that it was. Not even worth commenting on, really. At Cassie's comment, she had looked up sharply, twisting her neck to see her new friend standing by the kitchen entrance.

"Actually," Cassie circled around to face Delia on the couch. "I was thinking you could introduce me to some of your friends, and we could all hang out together."

Delia stared at her, not sure what to say. "I haven't really had a chance to meet people my age here, yet," She began uncertainly, but Cassandra cut her off with a wave of her hand.

"Your friends back in Massachusetts. Here, let me show you what I mean." Cassandra grabbed her laptop, and set it up on the low table in front of the couch. "Sam gave this to me for a birthday present one year; it has full audio and visual communication capabilities. I thought we could have a teleconference-style party!"

A grin spread across Delia's face. "That's an insane idea." She said, still grinning. "I'm not even sure my friends have a computer that can handle that kind of program!"

"Then let's find out, shall we?" Cassandra handed her the phone.

As it turned out, Leia's dad had a computer with all the newest upgrades, and she invited Mel and one or two of their other friends to bring the party to their end. Delia hadn't even realized how homesick she had been until she saw her friends' familiar faces on the computer monitor, and heard their over-caffeinated, over-excited voices over the speakers. After quick introductions all around, the games began. In traditional slumber party fashion, they played games such as five fingers, truth-or-dare, and discussed hair styles and colors, as well as many other important fashion topics.

Cassandra and Mel showed off their tattoos, and Delia was encouraged to choose something significant to permanently mark herself with as well. "Come on, guys. If I find something that I'll still want to see on my skin when I'm 80, then I'll get a tattoo, otherwise I'll pass thanks."

Cassie patted her on the shoulder. "Good call. I decided to get mine a few years ago, and it's definitely something I want to have my whole life." Cassie's tattoo was on the inside of her ankle, an ornamented script in some language Delia didn't recognize. "It's in an obscure dialect, but it basically says: 'I am with you'. It reminds me of my real mom and my adopted mom who are both dead now, but I still carry their memories and I feel like they're still with me, supporting me throughout my life."

Delia and her friends were all silent for a moment in respect. Then Mel gave a crooked grin. "And I thought mine was profound."

"Mel, your tattoo is a picture of Mickey Mouse." Pointed out Catherine, another of Delia's old friends.

"It symbolizes the inner-child, and the basic innocence with which we are born." Mel replied loftily, only to be knocked off her high horse by a piece of licorice thrown at her head.

The whole evening was a success, in Delia's eyes, and the only low point was during the game of truth or dare when Cassie was asked what her biggest secret was. This was suggested by Erin, who Delia had only known for the last two years of high school, and had kind of coat-tailed into her group of friends since she lived next door to Catherine. After "truth" had been chosen, and the question asked, Cassandra had smiled evasively and simply said "I'm sorry to ruin the game, but I can't answer that. I can tell you my second biggest secret, though!"

Her second biggest secret was that she had once cheated on a midterm test in high school, but despite all their pleading, Cassie refused to divulge the big one. Delia could see that her new friend was beginning to get irritated after five minutes of the girls on the other end of the internet connection begging, and she was reminded that Cassie was older than they were, and was probably getting annoyed with their juvenile games.

"Hey guys, I'm getting tired of this game, lets do something else." She suggested. To her relieve the truth-or-dare game was abandoned, and a conversation regarding the male prospects at college, or lack thereof, was begun.

As the night drew to a close, Delia said goodnight to her friends and went to her room to spend the last three hours till dawn in a deep sleep. Lying in the darkness waiting for sleep to claim her, Delia couldn't help but wonder what could be so important to Cassandra that she would refuse to follow the rules of an age old game which she herself had suggested playing?


	13. SG1 is in it again

Daniel took off his bandanna and sat down heavily on the nearest rock. "Mitchell, your guys said this was urgent, but so far we've done a lot of hurry up and wait."

Lt. Col. Cam Mitchell hefted his p90 and looked around at the wooded area they were currently occupying. Only the native woodland animals were agitated, and they kept mostly to themselves, with only soft chittering or chirping noises to indicate their presence. Teal'c, Vala, and even Carter looked bored.

Sam shifted her weight as she addressed the newest human member of Sg-1. " Cam, are you sure this is the right place? When you said Sg-12 had found an abandoned Orii outpost I was kind of expecting something a little more…high tech…than this clearing."

"Hey now, Sg-12 told me that there was some kind of mini-town thing just a few miles from the gate, and it had a few manuscripts and artifacts that we would be interested in. They assured me they would meet us here at 1200 hours, so what if they're a little late!"

"It is now 1330, Cameron Mitchell." Teal'c put in.

"And I'm not sure about this in your part of the galaxy, but where I'm from, that's considered more than a "little" late." Vala was pursuing her second favorite past time of playing with her pigtails, her favorite thing to do was, of course, bothering Daniel. This distraction didn't prevent her from pouting a little and glaring at Mitchell.

"Guys, you heard the radio, they said they were on their way."

"That was 20 minutes ago. I don't see why they couldn't have just gave us the directions, taken some video footage, brought back a few odds and ends…" Daniel waved a hand to emphasize his words. "There's a lot of options here."

Just then Major Andrews called on the radio, letting Sg-1 know that his team was minutes away from their location.

"See?" Mitchell gestured to his radio, after acknowledging the transmission.

Daniel only rolled his eyes expressively and got to his feet.

Sure enough, within moments Sg-12 came through the undergrowth, and with a brief apology for being late, lead the way to their discovery. Following the subtle markers, Daniel had to admit it was probably a good thing that they had guides who knew where they were going, since the thick alien plant life provided very little in the way of landmarks, and the magnetic field of the planet itself was such that compasses were of little to no use. Not that he would ever admit it to Mitchell.

Sam barely noticed the trek, after ten years of exploring alien planets with Sg-1, one more was really nothing to write home about. Her mind was filled with the thoughts of what a stash of Orii technology could mean for Earth's continuing battle against the superior force. She really hoped that this outpost would provide the advantage they had spent the last year and a half looking for.

Teal'c was concerned about the potential of this discovery to be a trap, created by the Priors to capture Sg-1, such was the havoc the team had created for them. He did not voice his suspicions yet, but kept both eyes and all his senses alert for anything out of the ordinary. He glanced at his teammates. Mitchell's over-confidence sometimes irritated him, but experience had proven the newest military member of Sg-1 to be a capable warrior. In this case, however, Teal'c could see that he was distracted by talking and joking with the members of Sg-12, and his attention was not as it should be: outward, in case of attack. Likewise, Vala was paying attention only to herself, apparently muttering to herself about what the forest was doing to her new military issue pants. She seemed to be impressed with the quality of manufacture, and Teal'c heard her say "not bad for such an undeveloped planet…" before she fell back out of ear-shot. Teal'c was in the front of the group, just behind Sg-12, and in front of Daniel and Sam. He could hear them behind him, quietly murmuring about what might be found at the outpost. _The war against the Priors of the Orii is not proceeding well. _Teal'c couldn't help but think. _I sincerely hope that my suspicions are wrong on this occasion, and that this outpost will provide nothing more than some pieces of technology, or perhaps insight into the tactics of our enemy. I pray it is not a trap of any kind._

Unfortunately, whatever deities Teal'c had in mind seemed unwilling to grant his request, for no sooner had Sg-12 announced the clearing around the abandoned buildings to be secure, then weapons fire erupted from the surrounding forest. Taking cover behind the remains of an outer wall, Daniel and Sam quickly returned fire with their P90s. Mitchell had been out farthest, along with the commander of Sg-12, and they had been forced inside one of the structures.

"I thought you said the area was secure!" He yelled to make his voice heard over the sounds of firing.

Major Andrews yelled back, glaring at the younger man. "My boys said it was! These guys came out of nowhere!" He stuck his head out of the doorway to evaluate the situation, but only managed to get a glimpse before a blast of energy nearly removed the appendage. "There was no sign of any recent presence when we were here before, Mitchell. Nothing to indicate that anyone had been here in the last several months!"

"Well I guess they decided it was about time they come back, then, huh?" Mitchell ducked out to return fire, and then quickly pulled back behind the stone doorway.

Another member of Sg-12 made a dash across the open space, covered by fire from his other teammates. "Sir," He gasped, "Erickson's hit. He was right in front of one, said these guys just appeared out of thin air; looks like some kind of cloaking device hid them from us. It's not the Priors, Sir." The man took another breath. "They seem to be Jaffa!"

Both Mitchell and Andrews swore, choosing different four letter words to express their shared feelings. Mitchell grabbed his radio. "Teal'c! Where are you?"

"Vala Mal Doran and I are safe for the moment, Colonel Mitchell. We have taken refuge behind a pile of rubble."

"Can you see the attackers?"

"From this vantage point I can only see that they appear to be using staff weapons in addition to energy guns similar to those of many races."

Listening to his radio, Daniel chipped in his information. "Teal'c, I hate to say it, but from what I can see we just got ambushed by a group of jaffa who haven't heard we're on the same side now."

There was silence on the radio, although now that they were listening for it, Sg-1 and 12 could hear the battle cries and orders shouted in goa'uld above the sounds of the battle.

" Jackson, can you get a rough estimation of how many we're facing?" Mitchell spoke into his radio, his face grave. _It wasn't supposed to go down like this! _

"I can see about eight from my angle, Sam's got another two on her left, but we're behind a wall-" There was a yell of pain, and the radio went silent.

" Jackson!" Mitchell swore again, grabbing his radio in a death grip. " Jackson, what happened? Are you okay?"

"Carter here, Daniel's okay." They all breathed a sigh of relief. "He's going to need medical attention, though, and quickly. It's just his shoulder, but burns like this can get seriously infected." Sam spoke from experience. In all their years of fighting the goa'uld, and all the members of Sg-1 had had plenty of experience in dealing with staff weapon burns. It didn't make the injury any more fun to deal with, though. Daniel was out cold, which was probably for the best considering how much those burns hurt, but it would make moving him a lot more difficult. " Cam, we need to get out of here, now."

"Thanks Sam, I think I figured that out." Mitchell considered their options. They were trapped in the ruins of an Ori outpost, surrounded by at least 15 hostile jaffa, with two injured men to take care of, and Cam had no idea how they were going to get out of this one. _Wait a minute; we're in an Ori outpost!_ Cam nearly smacked himself in the face. "Sam, there's gotta be some technology in here we can use! It's what we came all this way for, isn't it?"

"I have no idea what's in there Cam. I'm pinned down outside in this courtyard thing."

"I'll tell you what I see, and maybe we can find something, okay?" Mitchell moved away from the door, allowing the two member of Sg-12 to continue firing back at the jaffa outside.

" Cam, I don't know if I'll be able to recognize anything, I'm not really that familiar with Ori technology."

"I am." Vala interrupted. "Just tell us what you see, and if there's anything useful I'll let you know."

"Great. Okay, so there's a table here…" And Mitchell began describing everything he saw inside the abandoned building, hoping that this would turn out to be one of Sg-1s famous, insane, and against-all-odds escapes. The phrase "its so crazy it just might work" seemed to have been invented just for the SGC's flagship team.

Having searched both the upper and lower levels of the house with no success, Mitchell struggled to come up with a plan B. "Teal'c, how's it looking out there?"

"I can see one of the Enemy now, Col. Mitchell. He wears the emblem of Osiris, but is probably now bound to some lesser goa'uld who has gathered jaffa of many different former allegiances to fight for him."

"Great. Any chance of talking to them?"

"From the dedication they show to eradicating us, I believe any attempt to negotiate a cease fire would result in the death of he who stands up to speak."

"Yeeeah, that's kinda what I thought." Cam muttered to himself, after acknowledging Teal'c reply. Checking the ammunition in his rifle, he tripped over an uneven floorboard, and had to catch himself on the wall. Looking closely at the plank which had caught his foot, he noticed the space between it and the other boards was not packed with dirt as was true for the rest of the floor. There seemed to be space underneath it. "Sam, Vala, don't tune me out just yet, I think I may have found something."

SGCSGCSGCSGCSGC

As soon as Daniel returned to consciousness, he knew exactly what had happened. "Where?" He grunted, not moving. The burning pain he was feeling was clearly the result of being in the path of a staff blast, and he wanted to know which part of his anatomy had been fried this time before he even thought about getting up.

"They got your right shoulder pretty bad, Daniel." Sam said, kneeling next to him, keeping her head down behind their stone barricade. " Cam's found something in a cellar he thinks might be able to get us out of this, but you're going to have to hang tight for a few more minutes."

"No problem." He attempted a grin and came up with a grimace. "I'm not going anywhere."

As Sam administered what first aid she could, Daniel tried to distract himself from the pain by thinking of all the times he'd been hit by a staff weapon. It was a long list, and kept him occupied for several minutes. He was just remembering the time that he'd been shot while trying to usher a group of refugees through the gate, when he suddenly remembered he had a refugee of his own living with him. _Cordelia!_ For the first time in all his years of being part of Sg-1, Daniel experienced what it felt like to have someone at home who was counting on his safe return. It was a very odd feeling. He cared about his teammates, his work, and his life at the SGC, but to have someone else to think about on a personal level was a new sensation for him. _Aw, crap. How am I going to explain this! "A lab accident" isn't going to cut it with her_! He'd noticed her interest in his work, and the fact that she had a great sense for when someone was lying to her, and he knew that explaining the massive energy burn would take some work. Not to mention the other implications of this mission… "Sam," He managed.

"Don't talk, save your strength. Vala said Cam's on the right track."

"Sam, when we get back, remind me to update my Will."

Sam turned quickly to face her wounded teammate. "What are you talking about? You're going to be fine."

Daniel smiled weakly. "Yeah, I know. But next time we do something fun like this, I might not be." They all knew what might happen each time they stepped through the 'gate, but now that he had Cordelia to think about, the dangers of his job really hit home.

Sam nodded tensely, no more words were needed. She could tell he was thinking of his newly found daughter. She'd felt the same way during her relationship with Pete. Having someone at home who had no idea of what kind of danger they faced was something that all her military training hadn't prepared her to deal with. Her radio crackled, interrupting her train of thought, as Vala gave Cam some directions about a piece of equipment he had found in the underground chamber.

"Is it lighting up?"

"Nope, dead as a doornail." Mitchell turned over the triangular object in his hand, willing the opaque jewels set into the device to start glowing. From the description he'd given her, Vala said that it might be a remote of sorts which would activate the perimeter defenses. She said that she'd seen one like during a tour of the military installation outside the village where she'd lived with Tomin. Although, the one she'd seen could only be activated by an individual appointed and "blessed" by a prior. Many four letter words went through Mitchell's mind, but all he said was, "crap."

" Cam, if I can get to you, I think I might be able to work with that device. It sounds like it operates in a similar fashion to a device we recovered last month. We didn't know what it was back then, but we managed to take it apart and I think I can reroute the power around whatever restrictions are placed on it."

_Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! _Mitchell cheered internally. _This_ was the Sg-1 he'd dreamed of being a part of. Brawn, bravery, and brilliance: all could be found in ample supply in his team.

Major Andrews ordered his men to lay covering fire, and on the signal, Carter raced across to the building, reaching the door way just as a barrage of staff weapon fire erupted from the bushes. Taking advantage of the distraction, Teal'c and Vala made a dash from their previous cover to join Daniel behind cover that Carter had just vacated. It was a tight fit with all three of them behind the tumble down wall, but Vala took advantage of it to get close to Daniel. This way, she could also demonstrate her nursing skills, which mostly consisted of mopping his brow.

As she came barreling in through the doorway, Sam made a lunge to the left to avoid a staff blast which made a burn mark on the back wall of the small room. But as she did so, she crashed into the table Mitchell had first observed in his survey of the place. Her momentum carried Sam and the table crashing to the floor, where she felt a sharp pain in her arm.

"Sam! Are you alright?" Mitchell ran to her side as Andrews and his man returned fire, forcing the jaffa to keep their heads down for a moment. "Colonel, we're running out of ammo, here." Andrews reminded his fellow officer tensely. Their small weapons wouldn't hold off the jaffa for much longer, and the few grenades they had would go very quickly if the escape attempt didn't go well.

Mitchell only nodded in response to Andrews' comment, and knelt at Carter's side. "Your arm?" He asked, as he saw her holding it close to herself, face contorted in pain.

"Yeah, I must've broken it on the way down." She gritted her teeth and stood up, with Cam's help. "Where's the device?"

"Right here." As Sam examined the device one-handed, Cam made a makeshift splint and sling for the arm. There was no time to try and do anything more, and Sam couldn't spare any attention for the pain in her arm, concentrating all her energy on figuring out how to activate the remote security systems which were their best, and only, hope of escaping the deadly clearing alive.


	14. Down We Go

A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the long gap in between updates. So, sorry for the melodramatic cliff-hanger last time (I couldn't resist,) and here we go again! Thank you so much for all of your reviews!

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Delia and Cassie were sitting on the couch, watching the home video that Daniel's daughter had seen when she first moved in. Currently, they were laughing hysterically at the antics of the young corgi, Homer, as he tried to engage Teal'c in a game of fetch. 

"Wait, is Teal'c wearing _make-up?_" Cordelia asked, gasping for air. The tall black man seemed to be wearing eye-shadow on screen, but thinking back to her meeting at the airport, she didn't remember noticing anything out of the ordinary about him, besides his massive size.

"I guess so. It must have been a tradition he hung onto for awhile after joining the Air Force." Cassie covered, sitting up a bit.

"You mean he's from Africa? I thought I heard a bit of an accent." Cordelia was pleased to find that at least one of the mysteries surrounding her dad's friends could be easily explained.

"Yeah, that's right." Cassandra silently thanked her lucky stars the educational system in America was such that no one really knew anything about Africa or its culture except for the famines and genocide which made the evening news. (Unless, of course, you were someone who actively studied that area of the world.)

"Oh, wow. Did Daniel seriously wear those huge glasses all the time?" Cordelia's attention was once again drawn to the television screen. She had seen pictures of him in his long-hair days, but to see it in action, with his glasses, was too much for her, and she burst out laughing again.

A phone rang, but such was the noise the two young women made, it rang several times before Cassie noticed, and grabbed the receiver. "Hello?"

Noticing her new friend was on the phone, Delia composed herself, and paused the video. This time, she eavesdropped obviously and unabashedly. It was her house, after all. Well, she lived there, and Daniel was family, so technically… Her train of thought derailed suddenly, when a sharp note of worry entered Cassie's voice.

"How bad? …can we see them? ….no, she doesn't have clearance…"

Cordelia sat straight up on the couch. _Crap._ Her stomach hurt all of a sudden, and she knew something had gone very wrong. "Cassie, what is it? What happened?"

Cassie waved a hand at her to keep quiet, all her attention focused on what the person at the other end of the phone was saying. "Mmm, okay. He's what? ….okay, I'll let her know…tell Sam I'll come by as soon as I can…okay….thanks. Bye."

The moment the phone disconnected, Cordelia leapt, verbally, at the other woman. "Is Daniel hurt? Can I go see him? What about Sam?"

"There was an…accident, at the lab where they were working. Um, they're both going to be fine." Cassandra spoke slowly. Her voice was steady, but her hands were trembling, and she had to sit down.

Cordelia sat down next to her, cradling her broken arm to avoid jarring it. Most of her injuries were pretty much healed, but the arm was in the last stages of recovery, and she really didn't want to jeopardize it now. "What does that mean? What does "fine" mean?" She asked anxiously, realizing how young and lost she sounded even as she said it.

"Daniel's been burned, and Sam's arm got broken. But Delia, I'm afraid you can't visit him just yet, the base is a secure facility, and you have to get special permission to go in, even if you're just visiting the infirmary."

"So? Daniel's my family, Cassie; they'll have to let me in!" Delia didn't understand what was going on, but she knew that the only person she fully trusted in this new place was currently severely injured, and now she was being told that she couldn't even go see him!

"It doesn't always work like that, a lot of the work they do is Confidential, and is like, a matter of National Security." Cassie tried to explain, fidgeting with her hair. "I'm going to go in and see them this afternoon; I'll try to get them to make an exception." She reached for the phone. "I'll have an airman come by and stay with you; he can give you the details."

"No, that's not good enough! Why are you allowed on the base? Does this have something to do with that "secret" you accidentally mentioned during our little slumber party?"

"Forget I ever mentioned that, Delia. I'm really sorry I brought it up, I guess I just got carried away by the game, and kinda forgot where I was…" She dialed the phone, engaging herself in the task so as to avoid looking at the younger woman. "This is Cassandra Frasier; can I have a car sent to Daniel Jackson's house?"

Cordelia threw her good hand up in the air in exasperation. "Cassie, I'm not just gonna sit here quietly while my _dad _is lying in a hospital bed somewhere! He came outta _nowhere_ to look after me, the least I can do is show up at his bed side!"

"Yes…that'd be great, thank you….okay, I'll be ready." Cassandra hung up the phone, and looked directly at Cordelia. "I'll do what I can, Delia, I think they'll work something out, but you gotta just sit tight for the time being, okay? The last thing Daniel needs is for you to get all agitated and hurt yourself again."

"I am _not_ getting agitated!" Delia yelled, but realized what she was doing, and her voice dropped. "I'm fine." She took a slow breath. "Can you at least tell me why you've got…"security clearance" or whatever?"

"…I got really sick when I was a kid, and had to be taken to the base medical center, since it's much better than any of the others in this area." Deciding the best response was to be as truthful as possible, Cassie went with a watered down version of her introduction to the base under Cheyenne Mountain.

"Oh." Delia felt a bit embarrassed about her initial reaction now, but it was too late to save face, so she plunged on. "So, you'll let me know as soon as I can come, right? And this Airman dude will give me the lowdown?"

"Yeah." Cassie turned off the TV, and got up to go find her shoes, but Delia stayed on the couch, still unsatisfied. She still had so many questions! She tried to keep them to herself, but at last she had to let one burst out.

"But what happened? Why were an archeologist and an astrophysicist working together in the same lab? And how badly is Daniel burned?" Okay, so more than one got away from her. It was so frustrating not knowing anything! She ran her hand through her short hair irritably.

By the door, Cassandra just turned and looked at her. "I know this is hard, Cordelia, but it'll all work out, you'll see."

"Oh like _that _was a helpful response!" Scared, angered, and starting to hurt a bit from her car crash wounds, Delia's comment was bitingly sarcastic, and she turned to stare at the blank TV screen. She wasn't pouting; she was just staring angrily at the grey square in silence.

Both girls waited in their respective poses quietly until they heard a car pull up outside. At the sound of the motor, Delia looked up from her non-pout and glanced at Cassie. "Let them know I'm worried, okay? Maybe we can guilt trip them into letting me come." She offered the comment in a sort of peace offering, and from the small smile Cassie gave her in return, it was evidently accepted as such.

Cassandra opened the door to let in the airman who would stay with Cordelia in her absence, but stopped, surprised, by who she found on the doorstep.

"Come on, hop in." From her vantage point on the couch, Delia couldn't see who spoke, but the distinctive accent gave her all the clues she needed, and her suspicions were verified as Cassie gave a name to their surprise visitor.

"Vala? What are you doing here? Who's going to stay with Cordelia?"

"Oh, she's coming with us." There was no hesitation in her voice, not the slightest hint of doubt or uncertainty. In Vala's mind, that had always been the plan. Impatient with Cassandra's lack of action, Vala came into the room, and looked around for the young woman in question. "Well? Do you want to just stay here all day?"

"No!" Ignoring Cassandra's confounded expression, Delia got to her feet as quickly as she could, and followed Vala out the door.

Cassie cleared her throat as Delia stepped out onto the porch.

"What? Cassie, don't try to talk me out of this-" She stopped when she saw what her friend was pointing at.

"I think you're going to want your shoes."

Delia, deciding stoic silence was the best response, went back in the house and put on her shoes before joining Vala and Cassandra in the car with the air force driver.

"Doc, we can't let her down here. She may be his daughter, but until a few months ago we didn't even know she existed! Besides, no one else's family gets automatic clearance, and we can't show special treatment." Lieutenant Colonel Cam Mitchell argued with the head doctor they walked down the corridor to the infirmary. They had been discussing Vala' controversial decision to bring Cordelia to the SGC for the last ten minutes, and Dr. Carolyn Lam was beginning to get tired of the topic.

"I'm not saying we should, but I don't think it's inconceivable to work out something where she can visit the infirmary without having to know all about the operations here."

Currently, the girl in question was being held at the NORAD facility just inside Cheyenne Mountain, which functioned as a cover for the Stargate program. Vala, being responsible for her presence, had been "requested" to stay there with her until a decision had been reached regarding her wish to visit Daniel in the infirmary.

They had been sitting there waiting for almost 40 minutes, when Vala declared, "You know what? This is harassment, hazing. I'm still the "new girl" so they refuse to give me any kind of power to make decisions around here. It's completely unfair, I'll have to talk to Daniel about this-" She broke off, then determinedly finished the sentence. "I'll talk to him about it when he's better."

"Vala, I really appreciate your help in all this…" Cordelia raised a hand to her forehead. In her anxiety about Daniel, and the stress of even getting in to see him, her old wounds were beginning to ache again. Well, some of them hadn't totally stopped aching, but regardless, she almost felt like calling it quits and going home. "I dunno, maybe I'll come back again some other time…"

"Cordelia Jackson-"

"It's Silverglade, not Jackson."

"Cordelia Silverglade, I am not letting you walk out of here without seeing Daniel! Don't get me in trouble for nothing." Vala stood up and began walking around the small room. "I'd call Jack, but I think he's out of the country, and even for Daniel the airfare's a bit much- You people really need to work on an alternative fuel source-" Thinking aloud, the black haired woman considered their options.

"That is incorrect, Vala MalDoran." The mental image Cordelia got was of circus clowns climbing out of a tiny car as the large form of Teal'c emerged from the elevator. "O'Neill is in fact attending a meeting in Washington, D.C., though he told me he would fly in if he could."

"Well that's just fantastic, he couldn't get out of a meeting to come visit his best friend?"

"I am sure he would have come were he able." Teal'c said sternly, clearly resenting the implication that Jack would ignore his friend's condition.

"Jack and Daniel seemed very close, Vala, it must be a really important meeting." Cordelia put in, feeling like she should defend her dad's friend. She stood up too, but since both Teal'c and Vala were quite a bit taller than her, it didn't accomplish that much. "Um, I'm kind of getting a headache here-"

"Then it is good that we are going to the infirmary. Follow me, please." Teal'c led them to the elevator, and waited politely for Vala and Cordelia to get in before he stepped in after them.

On the long, _long_, elevator ride down to the infirmary, Cordelia tried to put the pieces together, as she was totally confused as to what was going on. First, Daniel, an archeologist who works for the military, gets hurt in a lab explosion, along with a theoretical astro-whatsit. Then, she learns that even though she's his _daughter_ she can't go and see him in the infirmary. Despite this fact, she ends up sitting in a lobby that reminded her far too much of the hallway outside the principle's office in her elementary school for an eternity, only to be invited into an elevator which would take her down to the center of the Earth, it seemed. Cordelia itched her still-healing arm. "Um, Teal'c, how many floors does this place have?"

"I am not at liberty to discuss this facility, Ms. Silverglade." In the small space, Teal'c's deep voice reverberated through Cordelia. The elevator wasn't any smaller than a normal one, but in Cordelia's eyes Teal'c just had an enormous presence, in more than just physical terms, so that she felt rather claustrophobic.

"Oh." _I guess I shouldn't expect a straight answer out of anybody in this place._ She thought, and sighed. Absently, she wondered if the elevator ride was longer than the one that went up to the Space Needle in Seattle, WA. In junior high one of her close friends had gone there to visit relatives, and had raved about the Space Needle for weeks afterward. Of course, this friend believed that Men in Black was actually a documentary, and wouldn't shut up about how the top of the Space Needle was actually an abandoned UFO. After Cordelia's mom had died she'd fallen out of touch with him, and this was the first time in many years that she'd thought of him. _Weird._

"So…" The silence in the elevator was beginning to get to her. It seemed Vala and Teal'c were ignoring each other, apparently Vala was annoyed that he'd contradicted her opinion of Jack. Cordelia gave up the effort as a lost cause, and began imagining what their destination would be like. Some kind of abandoned warehouse way underground, maybe? Or some sort of dark system of tunnels, dimly lit and with low ceilings? Maybe she'd even get a chance to see Daniel's office, see some of what he worked on all the time. He'd bring home the occasional manuscript to translate, but never any artifacts.

The elevator stopped with a slight jolt, and Cordelia's thoughts were interrupted as the door pinged open. "We are here." Teal'c announced, in case anyone had missed it, and stepped out of the elevator, gesturing for Cordelia to proceed out into the hallway they'd stopped at.

Slowly, she stepped out of the brightly lit elevator into a circular, cement room with pipes and fittings running along the walls, and several hallways leading away from it. There seemed to be different paths indicated by painted stripes on the floor leading down the hallways. _Seems the network of tunnels was fairly close._ She thought, mentally giving herself points for her good guess.

Vala had stalked off down one tunnel, tossing her hair as she passed Teal'c. Ignoring her behavior, Teal'c escorted Cordelia in her wake. "This way to the infirmary."


	15. Infirmary Family

A/N: See? I'm updating! I apologize for the long wait, Real Life can be amazingly persistent when it comes to distractions. Once again, thanks for your reviews!

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Sam was sitting on the edge of the bed next to Daniel's, having been released from official care after having her arm set in cast. She fidgeted with the sling for a moment, then turned her attention to her unconscious friend. Daniel was in stable condition, but staff burns were no picnic, and he was currently doped up on pain meds. _I'm sorry I didn't get us out of there faster, Daniel. _She apologized silently. Rationally, she knew there was nothing she could've done to keep him from getting shot, the whole situation had been a mess, and to be honest, it was a miracle that she'd been able to get the automatic defense systems to activate as she had. Almost as amazing was that Sg-1 and -12 had been able to get back to the gate without being attacked by the defense system, since they'd had no way to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys. At least one good thing had come out of that fiasco. Sg-12 had thought to bring back the technology that Mitchell had found while searching for an escape route, and from what Dr. Lee told her, it looked like they had gained some insight into how the Ori constructed their gadgets. She was pondering how much work she'd be able to do with one arm, when the door to the infirmary opened, and she saw Vala enter the room, followed by Teal'c and Cordelia.

"Cordelia! I'm glad to see you." Sam crossed the room to greet Daniel's daughter. "I heard there was some debate about your being allowed down here." She glanced at Teal'c and Vala. "She was given clearance?"

"Not exactly." Cam Mitchell joined the little group, and after a quick glance at Daniel's still form, he turned his attention to the other members of Sg-1. "Sam, the Doc said she could come in _here_ to see Daniel, and convinced Landry it would be okay, but she's not allowed anywhere else." The lieutenant colonel emphasized the location with a fierce jab at the cement floor.

"Col. Mitchell is concerned it would be showing favoritism to allow her access to other areas of the base." Teal'c explained, only the slightest hint of disapproval in his tone.

"Which is of course is _complete_ nonsense. I say she's got a right to know. After all, Daniel practically started this whole place himself, I mean, he's the one who opened the-" Completely oblivious of her audience, Vala was about to blurt out the very secret which they were avoiding mentioning, but Cam quickly put a hand over her mouth and stopped her.

Cordelia felt very out of place, standing in the midst of all these adults who were talking about stuff she knew nothing about. She heard what they were saying, but even Cam's desperate measure of shutting Vala up didn't really capture her attention, since she was distracted by their surroundings. Looking around the miniature hospital, Cordelia saw that only a few of the beds were occupied, and one or two were separated from the common room by a curtain. Seeing the IVs and portable machines next to the beds, she got goose-bumps up and down her arm, her own experience of being hooked up to those machines far too recent for comfort. _For being a research facility, there seem to be an awful lot of beds here._ She thought, trying to distract herself from the memory of being stuck in one of the beds. There were also quite a few nurses and doctors on hand, though currently they seemed to be occupied with paperwork more than with their few patients. Just then, an Asian woman in a white coat came up to them, who Cordelia recognized as the Dr. Lam who had come by Daniel's house to check on her once or twice. Although not unfriendly, her brisk greeting and handshake struck Cordelia as a sharp contrast to the warmth with which the rest of Daniel's coworkers greeted her.

"If you'll follow me, I'll show you were Dr. Jackson's currently at." She said, leading them across the room to a bed that Cordelia hadn't noticed before. "I'm afraid he's currently asleep because of the pain medicine we have him on, but if you want to stay for a while, I'm sure he'll be glad to see you when he wakes up."

As they approached the bed, Cordelia's chest grew tight, and she realized she was having trouble breathing. _He's gonna be okay, it's not bad. That's what they're all saying._ She tried to reassure herself as she stepped up next to the bed. Daniel's eyes were closed, but he had good color, and seemed to be breathing regularly. His hands lay at his sides, relaxed, with only an IV in one hand to show that he was anything other than sleeping normally. Even so, all Cordelia could think of was that once again, a parent was in the hospital. Slowly, she sank down into the chair she found next to the head of the bed. Clenching her hands in her lap, she fought back the memory of the last time she'd been in this position.

She'd come home from school one Thursday afternoon, to find her mom lying on the couch, too tired to move. From there it had been one doctor's appointment after another, and all of them said the same thing. Her mom's heart was going to fail, and the only option was to try surgery. Cordelia and her grandparents had gone with Harmony to the hospital the day of the surgery, and Cordelia remembered sitting next to her mom in pre-op, holding her hand tightly as they tried to be brave for each other.

"It's gonna be fine, Delia. After this, we can go back to normal. Be good for your grandparents, okay?"

"Mom, I'm 15, not 5. Don't worry about me." Despite her brave words, the young teenager had clutched her hand, despite the IV prepping cream taped on the back of it. "Besides, this surgery is routine, right? They do it all the time."

"That's right." Her mom's smile trembled slightly, and she leaned back onto the bed for a moment. Cordelia sat beside her in silence, and then it was time for the operation. With a last round of hugs, and "I love yous" all around, Cordelia said goodbye to her mom for the last time and watched the surgeons wheel Harmony through the double doors and out of her daughter's life forever.

Now, sitting beside Daniel in the infirmary deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, Cordelia fought back tears. _It's not like that, he's okay. He's okay._ She repeated the mantra to herself.

Daniel's teammates looked at each other in concern. Cordelia had approached the bed as though Daniel lay dying, and now sat on the edge of the visitor's chair, her hands pale and locked together in a death-grip.

Sam crouched down in front of the young woman, cautious of her injured arm. "Cordelia? Are you alright? Can we get you anything?" She gestured for someone to get a glass of water. Teal'c immediately fetched one, and put it in her outstretched hand. "Here, do you need a drink?"

Dr. Lam put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Your father will be fine, Cordelia. He's had much worse injuries than this one."

Cordelia came back to the here and now and lifted her head, taking in everyone's concerned looks. She smiled shakily at Sam and the doctor, who she could now see was a caring person, simply more reserved than the rest of Daniel's friends. "I'm sorry." She managed, and then paused to take a gulp of the water Sam offered, realizing her mouth was incredibly dry. "I don't like hospitals, at all. And, well, seeing Daniel like this made me think of when I lost my mom." Cordelia wanted to explain more, but as she heard herself say the words, she felt a sob well up, and had to stop.

"I'm so sorry." Sam gave her a one armed hug, as best she could since they both had casts on, now.

Cordelia cleared her throat, and wiped unshed tears from her eyes. "Now I'm embarrassed." She muttered. She hated crying in front of people, much less adults who she barely knew. _You're an adult now too._ Her subconscious reminded her, unhelpfully.

"Daniel!" Vala cried suddenly, breaking the moment much to Cordelia's relief.

While everyone's attention had been focused on Cordelia, the wounded archeologist had indeed opened his eyes. "Hey." He greeted them casually. "What are you all doing here?"

"We came to visit you, Daniel, to cheer you up!" Vala said brightly, and perched herself on the side of the bed.

He flashed her an insincere smile, but his real attention was for Cordelia. "Delia? How did you get here?"

"The elevator. It took forever." She replied, smiling slightly. Now that he was awake, her fears were receding, and she felt even more embarrassed for making a scene.

"No, seriously. I didn't think family members were generally given clearance…" He asked, genuinely puzzled by her presence inside the top secret military facility he'd worked in for the last ten years.

Cam grinned sardonically. "Well, that's the thing, isn't it."

"We got around those rules…" Vala hedged.

Dr. Lam considered rolling her eyes. Couldn't these people just accept the situation and go with it? They always had to be asking questions, finding exactly the how and why. This, she supposed, was why they were good at their jobs. At any rate, she was quite tired of hearing the same discussion repeated endlessly, and decided this was a fine time for her to make her exit. "Colonel, make sure they don't wear him out." She said, addressing Sam. Turning to the man in the bed, she told him, "Dr. Jackson, don't do anything stupid and you should be able to go home in a few days."

Nodding his assent, as the doctor left to go and check on her other patients he turned his attention back to the group gathered around his bedside. "So, she was given partial clearance?"

Sam nodded. "More or less, she was given special permission to-"

"Daniel!" Came a glad cry, and Sam's explanation was interrupted as Cassandra Frasier flew across the room to greet her adopted uncle. "I'm so glad you're okay, what happened?"

"Cassie!" Daniel returned her gentle hug, and grinned at her. "I was wondering when you'd show up, I thought you'd be the first one here."

"Well, I do know all the shortcuts, but I had to go through all the channels, get permission from Landry and everything. With my history, he didn't want to overlook anything…" She said, and everyone around Cordelia nodded in understanding. She looked from one person to another in confusion. "Come on, guys, I'm feeling left out here."

Cassie looked hopefully at Sam. "Since they let Delia come down this far, they must've given her the okay, right? So we can tell her the truth?"

Sam shook her head regretfully. "Sorry, Cass, from what I hear it sounds like she's only allowed to visit Daniel in the infirmary, no where else."

"You mean I can't even see his office?" Cordelia asked, somewhat incredulously. All of this secrecy was only making her more and more curious about the work that these people did here.

"I thought you weren't interested in my work?" Daniel asked her, teasingly.

She shook her head, absently noting that it still felt really strange to not have any hair to swing around even after nearly a month. "Other kids get to see where their parents work, and I'm still trying to figure out what you actually _do _here!"

Daniel's face grew serious. "Cordelia, I understand you're curious, but you have to just let this go. Please trust me when I say it's for your own good."

Sam, Vala, Teal'c and Cam all backed him up. Even Cassie, added her support, though she looked unhappy to have to do so. "I can only imagine what it feels like to be in your place, Delia, but I think they're right." She gave a small smile. "Besides, wouldn't you rather go see a movie with me than look at some boring old books and papers?"

Cordelia struggled to hold on to her temper. _"For my own good"? What the hell is that supposed to mean! They're treating me like I'm ten years old! _Even Cassie's offer held something of the "bait and switch" routine 'Delia had used on the few occasions she baby-set, offer a bribe to distract the kids when they were misbehaving. She raised a hand to her forehead in consternation, trying to sort out her feelings. _If I get all pissy, that'll only confirm the fact that I'm immature! _

As she was struggling to find an appropriate response, the door to the infirmary opened, and a man in uniform came in. He wasn't that tall, but he had an air of self-assurance about him that gave him stature, and from what Cordelia knew about military uniforms, she could see that this man was important. Though she didn't know him, clearly he knew exactly who she was, as he made a straight line from the entrance to Daniel's bedside to greet her.

"Ms. Silverglade! It's good to meet you. I'm General Landry, in charge of this facility."

She shook the offered hand, hoping that her eyes weren't too red from her earlier trip down memory lane. "Hi."

"I'm sorry we had to meet like this, how are you doing?"

"Fine." She paused, then took hold of her courage with both hands and asked "Sir, if you're in charge here, can you please tell me why I'm not allowed anywhere except this infirmary?"

Landry smiled at her directness. "My, you certainly don't waste time, do you! Ms. Silverglade, as I'm sure everyone here has told you, everything that goes on around here is top secret, and you were lucky even to be allowed in this room! But there is one thing I can tell you."

Cordelia, without even realizing she was doing it, leaned forward in anticipation. "Yeah?"

"The work your father does here is vital to national security, and together with the rest of the people who work here, he's saved countless lives." The general said, looking her square in the eye so she could see that he was dead serious. "As you can see for yourself, this work is dangerous, and deadly serious." There was a moment of silence among the small group gathered, and then the general cleared his throat. "Well, I don't think I need to say anything else. Dr. Jackson, just because you have your own bed in the infirmary doesn't mean you can run to it every time your reports are due! Get well soon." After passing a couple of other sentences with the rest of the people under his command, the general headed back to his office, leaving Cordelia with a lot to think about.

After General Landry left, the room was quiet, with Sam and Teal'c chatting quietly on the far side of the bed, while Vala and Cassie made small talk about the current crop of contestants on American Idol. Daniel, after reminding Cam that he wasn't the only one behind on reports, turned to watch the young woman sitting quietly in the chair next to his bed. "Delia?" He said softly.

"I'm okay." She replied automatically, but then realized what she'd just said and looked up, her face turning red. "I'm sorry! That just slipped out!"

The archeologist smiled. "Considering that was my next question, I don't think you need to apologize. But, are you really okay? Having a flashback of your mom's death has got to be traumatic. Hell, I _know_ it's traumatic." He spoke with the voice of experience, and Delia remembered hearing somewhere that Daniel had actually _seen_ his parents die when he was 8, crushed by a falling block of something.

She brushed a short piece of hair back behind her ear. The movement was pretty much ineffectual, but it was a habit left over from when she'd actually_had_ hair. "I…yeah, I mean, it was pretty rough." Cordelia looked down, trying to gather her thoughts. "You know what?" Glancing sideways over at the figure on the hospital bed, she finished her thought. "I think I know why that guy's a general. What he said…made a lot of sense."

Vala jumped into their conversation in her usual way. "So if we would've told you we're all heroes you would've stopped bothering us?"

"Just ignore her," Daniel advised conspiratorially.

"Are you still up for that movie?" Cassie suggested, following Vala's lead and coming back into the conversation from her American Idol tangent.

Standing up, Cordelia took a good long look at the injured man. Except for the bandage wrapped around his chest and shoulder, he looked perfectly healthy. "Do you need anything, Daniel?"

"I'll be fine. Go have fun, Delia. Just because I'm stuck in here doesn't mean you have to be, too." He shot a look at Vala. "In fact, why don't you take _her_ along too? Please?"

Sam grinned, as did Teal'c albeit in a less obvious fashion. "Go ahead, Cass, we're on stand-down for the next few days, so Vala will have plenty of time to go stir crazy when she gets back."

"Isn't anyone going to ask _my _opinion of this little scheme?" The black-haired woman in question pouted, pretending to feel slighted. Cordelia stepped in to take the bait.

"And what do you think, Vala?"

"Obviously I'm coming with you two. Do you think I want to stay here with Mr. Boring? He'll probably just ask Sam to bring him some work to do while he's laid up!" Vala's tone clearly indicated her disgust at the idea of actually doing something productive while injured. "Let's go!" And with that, she marched out the infirmary, retracing her earlier steps back towards the elevator.

Grinning, Cassie gave Sam a little hug, waved at the rest of the gathering, and followed Vala's lead. "Come on, Delia, before she hot-wires the car!"

Cordelia paused, still kind of reluctant to abandon Daniel when she'd made such a big deal about coming down to see him in the first place. "Are you-"

Daniel cut her off. "Dr. Lam will probably send me home tomorrow, and then you can fuss over me, okay? For right now, enjoy the freedom Cassie's visit is allowing you. She's much more of a movie-goer than I am, after all."

She had to admit he had a very good point, and allowed a small smile to slip out. "Okay. I have my cell, so call me if you need me." As she left the infirmary and joined Cassie out in the passageway, the irony of the situation didn't escape her: her parting words to Daniel had been almost precisely what he'd said to her each morning before he left for work! Now it was her turn to experience what it was like to leave a family member injured in bed, and so far, it wasn't fun.


	16. Transformers in an Elevator

A/N: Righto, here's another piece of the continuing saga, sorry it takes me so long to get more out! But, to reassure you that I have not forgotten about this story, and fully intend to finish it, here is another bit, although it is rather shorter than previous chapters. Thanks so much for you reviews and for hanging with me!

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Cordelia paused, still kind of reluctant to abandon Daniel when she'd made such a big deal about coming down to see him in the first place. "Are you-" 

Daniel cut her off. "Dr. Lam will probably send me home tomorrow, and then you can fuss over me, okay? For right now, enjoy the freedom Cassie's visit is allowing you. She's much more of a movie-goer than I am, after all."

She had to admit he had a very good point, and allowed a small smile to slip out. "Okay. I have my cell, so call me if you need me." As she left the infirmary and joined Cassie out in the passageway, the irony of the situation didn't escape her: her parting words to Daniel had been almost precisely what he'd said to her each morning before he left for work! Now it was her turn to experience what it was like to leave a family member injured in bed, and so far, it wasn't fun.

The remaining members of SG-1 watched Cordelia leave the room, and as soon as the door closed behind her, Daniel's face tensed into a grimace of pain. "Owww." He hissed, letting out the breath slowly to minimize movement.

Teal'c immediately left to get Dr. Lam, and Carter put a concerned hand on Daniel's. "How bad is it?" She asked, having realized that he'd been putting on a brave face for the visitors.

"I'm not getting out tomorrow." The words were an understatement, but Sam had known Daniel long enough to understand the full meaning behind his causal declarations.

"She's going to figure it out, you know. She's not stupid. I mean, she is your kid after all." Sam chided gently. She couldn't help but reflect on her own feelings when Jacob Carter had revealed the extent of his illness to her after keeping it a secret to protect her.

"I know. I just didn't want her to worry…" Daniel closed his eyes, trying to push past the pain and confusion. He was used dealing with his teammates and adults whose reactions he could predict, but he was a loss of how to deal with Cordelia.

"We'll keep an eye on her." Sam assured her friend, and with a gentle squeeze of his hand, left to check on Teal'c's progress in locating Dr. Lam.

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The elevator ride back to the surface was quiet as Cordelia digested all that she had seen and heard. A United States Air Force general telling her that her dad was a hero, seeing all his friends in their uniforms, and even flashing back to her mom's final hours all made the prospect of zoning out at a movie quite appealing. At least it would give her mind a break from the dizzying swirl of thoughts which currently occupied it.

"Excuse me." An arm jostled her cast, bringing her abruptly back into the present. She hissed softly as the brief flash of pain traveled up her wounded limb.

"Are you alright? I'm so sorry; I didn't realize you had a broken arm." On noticing her reaction, the young man who'd bumped into her as he got into the elevator apologized earnestly.

Confused by the sharp transition, Cordelia glanced up hastily to see a young airman in BDUs staring at her in concerned embarrassment. "It's no problem, I'm fine." She managed.

"Airman, next time watch where you're going!" Vala ordered, taking no small delight in playing on her prestige as a member of the top team to discipline the young servicemen.

"Sorry, ma'am. Won't happen again, ma'am." The young man straightened up immediately, shuffling the papers he held in his hand nervously.

Cassie patted his shoulder. "Don't mind her, she's not actually part of the military you know."

"I know that, miss, but she is on S-"

Cassie interrupted him with a sharp clearing of her throat. "What's your name, airman?"

"Captain Joel Wilkinson, miss."

"I'm Cassandra Frasier, obviously you've heard of Vala, and this is Cordelia Silverglade." Since they were all stuck in a confined space together, Cassie figured they might as well exchange pleasantries. And it would be good for Cordelia to meet more people here in Colorado Springs. Especially cute, male people; a bill which Captain Wilkinson fit admirably.

Cordelia nodded slightly in greeting when Cassie introduced her, but wasn't entirely paying attention to the conversation.

At her name, however, the Captain seemed to start. Vala immediately picked-up on it. "You've heard of her, hmm?

"No ma'am, that is…not really." He stammered, flustered and embarrassed.

"Hey Cassie, can we go see Transformers?" Cordelia asked, oblivious to the fact she was interrupting a potential match-making scheme. She wanted something fast-paced, without much plot so she could just forget about reality for awhile. You couldn't get much more farfetched than alien robots turning into cars and planes.

Seeing a way out of the increasingly uncomfortable conversation he was trapped in, Captain Wilkinson quickly responded to Cordelia's question. "I think it's playing at the Grand Cinema, I saw it there last week with my buddies."

"Yeah? I've heard it's decent." Delia raised her eyes to meet Wilkinson's, looking at him properly for the first time since he joined them in the elevator.

As the two conversed about the movie, Cassie and Vala exchanged glances. "If I were her, I would definitely go for it." Whispered the black haired woman to her new friend.

Cassie nodded her agreement. "Now we just have to get her to seize the moment of opportunity."

Vala winked at her. "I've got a plan." The elevator slowed to a halt a few levels down from the ground level, and Captain Wilkinson prepared to depart. "You know, Cordelia, I'm still not that familiar with the Colorado Springs area, and a lot of things have changed since Cassandra lived here." She spoke loudly and clearly, and Cassie picked up her cue without missing a beat.

"I'm not sure I know where the Grand Cinema is, come to think of it. Captain, do you think you could give us directions?"

"Um, sure, miss… you know there's actually a theatre pretty near by on Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard…" He glanced out the opened elevator doors which beckoned him to be about his business, and hesitated a moment.

"Why don't you just give us your cell phone number, and we'll call you if we get lost." Cassie suggested brightly.

The young airman knew immediately he'd been set up, but decided to go with the flow. Cassie and Vala smiled hopefully at him, and if there was a suggestion of a leer in Vala' smile, the effect was lost on Wilkinson who focused on Cordelia's reaction. Finally he grinned slightly, and tore off a piece of paper from one of the files he was carrying. "Sure, why not."

A pen appeared in Vala's hand. "Here you go." She smiled sweetly.

Wilkinson took it, his grin sliding towards a grimace, and then handed Cordelia the number, placing it fully in her hand. "Hope the arm feels better soon, I'm really sorry about bumping it."

Belatedly, Cordelia realized that her new friends had just snagged her a potential date. "Oh, yeah, don't worry about it. Thanks!" She called out as the airman headed down the corridor and out of sight as the elevator doors closed.

"Well done." Vala congratulated Cassie solemnly, her eyes bright with glee.

Cassie nodded in return, fighting back the huge grin which threatened to engulf her face.

Cordelia fingered the scrap of paper in her good hand thoughtfully. "I appreciate that you guys are trying to help me out, but I don't think I'm ready for-" First Vala, and then the elevator reaching their floor interrupted her.

"At least give it a chance!" As the three women walked out to the parking lot, Cassie and Vala did their best to assure her that her best course of action lay in giving Captain Wilkinson a phone call and being open to new things.

"New things? Guys, today I found out my dad works in a place so secret his own _daughter_ can't even see his office, was told by a General that he's a hero, and had a flashback of my mom's death. I think I've had enough excitement for one day. Now you guys set me up with a random soldier we met in an elevator-"

"Actually he's an airman." Put in Vala.

Cordelia ignored the interruption and continued. "For all I know he just wants to get in good with the "hero's" daughter." Careful of her injuries, Cordelia slid into the back seat of the car Vala had commandeered for them. "I just want to go to the movie, and then go home."

"Delia, he gave you his number because he wanted to. Don't over think it!" From the passenger seat, Cassie craned her neck to address the young woman in the back seat. Cordelia nodded silently in response, and leaned back in the seat, deciding she would worry about the whole dating thing later. "Let's just go see the movie."

"If you ask me, you're missing an opportunity to just enjoy yourself without worrying about things! While Daniel's in the infirmary, he can hardly fuss about you staying out late!" Putting the car into gear, Vala reversed quickly, then shifted to drive and sped out of the parking lot, causing her passengers to clutch the door handles. On the ride over from Daniel's house, Cordelia had been too preoccupied with her fears to be worried about Vala's driving, but now that she had a destination less urgent than the bedside of an injure relative, she feared for her own life.

"Where did you learn to drive?" She gasped out, as they blew through a stop sign and merged into traffic.

"Well, I haven't actually been _trained_ on one of these machines, but I've driven plenty of vehicles in my time, and one is pretty much like another."

As Cordelia choked back a yell at a very sudden corner, Cassandra had to laugh. "Vala, I'm pretty sure automobiles are quite a bit different than what you're used to driving. Pull over at this next gas station, I'll drive."

Fighting to get her pulse rate back down to normal, 'Delia had to ask, "What else do you drive, if you don't have a license?"

"I work for the Air Force, Cordelia, what comes to mind?" Was the evasive reply.

_I'm pretty sure you fly planes, not drive them._ She thought, but didn't see any point in pursuing the line of questioning, since she had learned that when it came to anything that went on with her father and his co-workers, "Top Secret" was the watch word.


	17. Housework

A/N: I am so sorry I haven't updated recently! I swear I have not forgotten about this story, and fully intend to finish it. I don't believe in excuses, but suffice it to say that apparently Real Life takes up an inordinate amount of my time. Thanks for sticking with me!

When we last left our heroes, Cordelia got to go visit Daniel in the infirmary, but she still was kept in the dark about what he really does. On the upside, she got the number of a cute guy in the elevator and got to go see Transformers. Right, on with the show!

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_This is stupid!_ Thought Cordelia, as she scribbled on the piece of notebook paper that was supposed to contain a list of her goals for the next 6 months. So far, the paper held a stick-figure doing cartwheels, a four-leaf clover, and her initials in 3-D letters. Goals? Besides "win the lottery," "buy a car," and "marry Jensen Ackles," she didn't know what she wanted for breakfast next week, let alone what she wanted to do with her life.

The project had been Cassandra's idea. Daniel was still in the infirmary, resting. Doc Lam had said that she wanted to watch his wound longer, to make sure it didn't get infected, before she sent him home. Daniel's suggestion of being sent home "tomorrow" turned into more like "three or four days" before he'd be home to finish healing in the comfort of his own bed. So Cassie had agreed to keep an eye on Cordelia for the week, but today she had made plans with some old school mates, and decided that Cordelia needed something to keep herself occupied with in Cassie's absence.

-Clunk- The sound of her head hitting the table confirmed Cordelia's suspicions. Yup, her brain had taken a vacation, leaving nothing behind but an empty cranium. _Cassie, I'm sure you meant well, but c'mon! I've been sitting around for a month watching TV, how can you expect me to think?_ Rubbing her forehead, which now smarted a bit, 'Delia maneuvered herself out of the kitchen chair and headed for the living room, whereupon she flopped down onto the couch, letting her body go limp. Eyes closed, she thought about her situation. _I'm practically 19, I live with an archeologist who works for a top secret military project, supposedly some kind of hero. All my friends live half a continent away, except for Cassie, who's only here for a few more days. My car is destroyed, not that I could really drive it with one good hand anyway. I guess my hair turned out okay…_ The thought of her injuries raised the image of Daniel lying in the hospital bed during her visit to Cheyenne Mountain two days ago. How had an archeologist come to get such a serious burn? Things just didn't seem to fit. Maybe they were developing secret bio weapons down there, or maybe some kind genetic engineering project. "Yeah, and maybe they developed a fire-breathing dragon. Cordelia, let's try to think like someone who _hasn't_ lost their marbles." She chided herself. _Maybe Cassie's right, I do need a hobby._

Cordelia opened her eyes and grabbed for a magazine off the coffee table. The first one that came to her hand was _National Geographic_. Flipping through it, she suddenly stopped at a page featuring photographs of several Egyptian artifacts.A small urn caught her attention, the gold design nagging her with its familiarity. Where had she seen it before? She stared at the ebony and gold patterns, willing her mind to dredge up the memory, but all she came up with was a sensation of blue and grey which colored the scene she was searching for. Frowning, she flipped back to the beginning of the article and read through, hoping something would jump out. The article talked about the continuing archeological research being done in the Valley of Kings, but had nothing specific to say about the photographed items. She stared at the page hard for a moment, but stopped when her head began to hurt from her fierce concentration. After a last look at the gold….squiggle, for lack of a better word, she shut the magazine and tossed it back onto the coffee table. She glanced at the clock on the VCR. Contrary to the perceived norm, it did not blink "12:00" at all hours of the day and night, but actually kept time. Daniel mentioned that he'd had Sam to program it for him when he moved in. Currently the digital display read 1:28, causing 'Delia to heave a sigh. Cassie said she'd be back at 7-ish, which left Cordelia a whole afternoon to keep herself occupied in a productive, none-crazy, way.

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Daniel finished proof-reading his report, and set it down on the table top extending over his bed which Dr. Lam had thoughtfully provided for him. His shoulder throbbed, but he ignored it.

"Hey Sam." He called to his friend, who was getting a check-up on her broken arm. "Did Cassie say where she's planning to do her internship? She told me she had one lined up, but I forgot if she told me where."

The blonde haired woman frowned in thought. "Somewhere on the East Coast, wasn't it? Why?" Thanking the nurse, she made her way to Daniel's bedside.

"I was just thinking…" He paused, uncertain whether he should actually voice his opinion out loud. "I wonder if Cordelia wouldn't be better of staying with her." He finished. Daniel waved a hand in emphasis with his next words. "All this, secrecy and rules, she won't even see me for days at a time, she can't really help me with my projects or know what I actually _do_ down here. Besides, her injuries are almost healed and if Cassandra is going east, then she's closer to her friends and grandparents."

There was silence for a moment, as Sam considered his words. "You know that scenario's never going to work." She said conversationally, in the same way she might say "the sky is blue today," stating a fact which both could see was plainly evident.

The wounded archeologist sighed. "It's tough being able to see the blatant flaw in your own plans. Neither of them would agree to it. Cassie would insist she's old enough to make her own choices, and Delia'd probably want to know _why_ I'm trying to ship her out."

Sam patted his good shoulder. "Come on, you guys are doing fine. Soon you'll be back at home, and you can lecture her all about the medical practices of some obscure South American region."

Daniel shuddered slightly under her fingers, and picking up on the involuntary reaction to her words, Sam flushed. "Oh God, Daniel, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking-"

He cut her off. "I'm fine; the burn just had a bad second there. Besides, Sam Carter not thinking? Jack'd have you checked out by the Doc to make sure it's actually you."

She smiled at his attempt at humor, but she knew his reaction had been more than just a result of his most recent injury. Though it had been several years ago and even then not the first time he'd been tortured, she suspected her mention of South America brought up some very unpleasant memories. A few of which she herself was now receiving. An image of the medical report detailing numerous electrical burns appeared in her mind's eye, but she quickly banished it.

"So, what brought this newest bought of self-pity?" She teased her teammate gently.

"It's not exactly easy having a practically grown-up kid!" He fidgeted with his glasses. "Its amazing people ever become parents, when you actually think about it. I'm starting to understand why Nick dumped me in the Foster Care system after my parents died."

"That's a little harsh, isn't it?" Sam was taken aback. She knew how rough things had been between Daniel and his grandfather until his own adventure with the Crystal Skull artifact, but to have completely reversed his position on that topic…She hadn't realized that Daniel was really having such difficulty dealing with his daughter.

Seeing her shocked expression, although she hid it a moment later, caused Daniel to re-think what he'd just said. "I'm kind of out of line, aren't I? Can I just blame the drugs?" He gave a tired, apologetic smile. "I didn't really mean all that, I'm just a little out of it right now."

"Well, blaming the drugs is more believable than saying "an alien artifact/organism made me do it."" Sam commented with a wry smile.

"You know as well as I do that most of the time that excuse actually does apply!"

The Lt. Colonel finally let a full grin slip out. "I guess I'll let you off the hook this time, besides it's almost 2 and I need to go make a phone call." She patted his hand one more time, and then turned to leave.

"Say 'hi' to Jack for me. And please don't tell him we've had this conversation. He'll just call _me _up and try to reassure me by explaining in great detail how much of a loser I used to be in comparison with what I am now."

The door to the infirmary closed, but not before Sam tossed a cheerful smile back over her shoulder. Daniel picked up several papers and reshuffled them for a minute, just so he'd have something to do. The strategy didn't work for long, however, and soon he was again forced to think.

_As if the Orii weren't enough, now I have a daughter to worry about. What'll happen to her if I don't come back from a mission? I don't know how SGC personnel ever have families! _He reflected on the servicemen and women he knew who had families here on Earth, and his respect for all of them sky-rocketed. _Although, most of them do have a spouse helping out,_ he allowed. It was one thing to risk his life daily to save a planet full of people he didn't know, but when he had family, a life that _he'd_ helped to create, suddenly a whole new light was cast on the issue. For as long as he'd been at the SGC he'd had a project he was willing to die for, but now it seemed he had something to _live_ for as well. He'd only just met Cordelia, but it would hardly be fair for him to abandon her now, despite the fact that he was sure she'd protest that she could take care of herself. He'd always thought of himself as a very responsible person, but now it seemed that claim was going to be put to the test.

The phone rang on the opposite end of the infirmary, and a minute later a nurse came to Daniel's bed. "It's Vala Mal Doran, Dr. Jackson. She wants to know if the clay urn with black etching and red glazing was important."

_With Vala on his plate as well, it was amazing he could _ever_ save the planet, let alone the universe!_ Seeing as he couldn't even protect priceless artifacts…

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Cordelia ended up doing laundry. Even as she moved through the house, carrying the clothes as best she could with one good arm, she could hardly believe she was actually voluntarily doing a chore she used to avoid like the plague. She'd done the towels, and started on her own stuff, but Daniel could take care of his skivvies on his own. It wasn't that she was grossed out by guys' dirty laundry, since she'd seen enough of that when she'd hung out at her boyfriend-of-the-month's place during high school so she wouldn't have to face her mother-less home. Mostly it was just the uncomfortable feeling that came with picking through a man's underwear who she'd only known a few weeks. That would be just too weird for her at this point. Besides, Daniel'd been a bachelor; he probably had his own system and would prefer to do his own laundry.

Her conscience thus satisfied, Cordelia finished loading the dryer and looked at her watch. Somehow, doing household tasks had made the day go by quickly, and it was nearly 6 o'clock. The phone rang, and Cordelia went over to the counter to answer it before she realized that the tone was coming from her cell phone. The caller ID told her why she hadn't recognized the ring tone- Cassie had programmed her phone with Sam's number, and set the ringer.

"Hey 'Delia! I remembered Cassie said she'd was going to get a meal with some friends today, so I thought I'd swing by with a pizza." The lieutenant colonel's friendly voice sounded in her ear.

Surprised by the offer, which seemed to come out of the blue, Cordelia managed a stammered reply. "Uh, sure!" Never one to turn down free food, she accepted the offer. "Can you get Hawaiian?"

"No problem. See you in about 30 minutes!"

'Delia hung up the phone, and then sat a moment staring at it in silence. She hadn't even thought about dinner, good thing Sam called when she did. So much for all her vaunted "self-reliance." Cordelia realized where her train of thought was taking her, back into the dark contemplation of her own failures, and then just had to laugh. Self-reliance, shmelf-reliance, she was getting free food for dinner! And she didn't have to do the dishes afterwards thanks to the wonder of paper plates. The future looked bright indeed.

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It was closer to 11 than 7 when Cassandra finally got back to Daniel's house. By that time Sam had come and gone, and Cordelia had cleaned up the pizza and changed into her pajamas. She was watching TV when she heard a key rattle the lock, and the front door opened. "You could've called." She said, putting on her best Disapproving-Parent Look as she got up to greet her friend. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Cordelia, I'm sorry—" Then Cassie caught sight of the younger woman's grin, which had managed to sneak out in spite of her efforts to keep a straight face. "Well, practicing that guilt trip, are we? Daniel has no idea what he's in for." She teased.

Tossing her coat onto the couch, Cassandra headed to the kitchen, on the way telling Cordelia about her day. They were just sitting down for a cup of tea, coffee in 'Delia's case (decaf, which she'd had to have Daniel buy special since he never touched the stuff), when Cassie suddenly stopped in the middle of a sentence and sat upright in her chair with a look of concentration.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" 'Delia had no idea what the other woman was talking about.

"Shh—" Cassie motioned her quiet. The house was silent, and Cordelia couldn't hear anything besides the faint hum of the refrigerator behind her. After a moment, Cassie relaxed. "Sorry, I thought I heard something, like somebody at the door."

"Sam came by earlier…but who would be around at this time of night? Besides, we would've heard the doorbell. This one works. At my grandparents' house we had to put up a sign because everyone kept ringing the doorbell but it was broken, so then they thought we were ignoring them." Puzzled by Cassie's jumpiness and not paying attention to what she was saying, 'Delia found herself rambling onto another topic. She quickly shut her mouth before she babbled anymore.

Cassandra tried to smile and shrug off her concern. "Yeah, sorry. It was probably just a cat or something outside." Her charade failed to fool even her, so she tried to change the subject entirely. "So, have you called up that airman from the elevator?"

Her mouth open to reply, Delia's denial was interrupted by a crash from the front room.

Both women sprang out of their chairs, but before Cassie had taken more than a step towards the doorway to find out what had happened, a man in full black appeared, dressed in what Delia recognized from movies as SWAT team armor and carrying a gun. In all the TV shows and movies, never had any of the guns she'd seen looked so big and menacing as the one held in front of her face. This was taken note of by the one part of her brain not in full panic mode, since her immediate reaction was far less analytical.

Cassandra, who had inadvertently stepped directly into the path of the lead gunman, was felled swiftly be a blow of the man's rifle-butt to her temple. Delia bit back a scream as Cassie crumpled to the ground.

Outwardly she had paled but held herself together enough to back slowly away as two, then three more men filed into the kitchen. Reaching the counter, she cautiously, and, as surreptitiously as she could, reached for the knife block she knew was there. The kitchen, never very large to begin with, now seemed filled to the brim with armed men in black. Inside, Cordelia was screaming and sobbing in fear, but she held on desperately to her calm façade. "What do you want?" She was proud that her voice only shook a little. The mask that had held off bullies who teased her for being fatherless in grade school, and which had allowed her to get through high school after her mom had died held up under the silent gaze of these home intruders, but it didn't stop the two on the far ends from slowly approaching.

"Stop! Don't come any closer!" Delia pulled out the largest knife she could grab and held it in front of her like a sword. The men paused, but at a hand gesture from their leader resumed their advance. Clearly they weren't interested in shooting her, otherwise they would have done so already, but she couldn't hold them off for long one-handed, even with a huge knife.

Thinking quickly, she suddenly darted straight forward, aiming for the slight gap created by the advancing men. She shoved the kitchen table out of the way with her hip, into one of the armored invaders, and slashed wildly with the knife to clear a path to the phone in the living room. Why hadn't she brought her cell phone with her to the kitchen? It was still on the coffee table in the living room, farther away than the land line. _Because you weren't expecting to get attacked!_ She answered her own question, just as she nearly tripped over the prone form of Cassie. Her adrenaline was up, however, and she managed to jump Cassie's unconscious body without mishap.

Her hand was on the phone, her fingers dialing even as two factors made her heart drop to her stomach. There was no dial tone, the phone was dead. And just in case she didn't feel helpless and freaked out enough as it was, a bright light now shone in her eyes from a new set of black-armored men.

Black seemed to be the "it" color this season, for no sooner had Cordelia realized that the men in the kitchen had brought friends than she felt a flash of pain along with a bright glare and the blackness of unconsciousness consumed her.


	18. False Gods and Old Friends

**A/N: **I'm back!! I apologize once again for the delay, but here's a nice long chapter for y'all! Thanks in large part to the urging of Michelle, I will try to keep up a more steady pace in finishing this story. Thanks for hanging with me, and enjoy! (unbeta'd, so all the mistakes are mine. Please let me know if/when you find them!)

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Dr. Jackson, message for you." The morning shift nurse came over to the archeologist's bed side and handed over a note. "While you were out…" the cheery heading greeted him. Underneath was a decidedly less upbeat message: "Nbrs report burglary," it said. Just as Daniel was puzzling out the meaning of the cryptic message, (what did he have to burgle? The SGC was the safest place on the planet, practically. And what did "Nbrs" mean? Neighbors? What? OH…), Cam burst through the infirmary doors. "Jackson, I just heard. Sam and Teal'c took a team out to check the scene, but Landry said to stay here in case we get a call."

Realization hit Daniel like a ton of bricks. Actually, he suspected a ton of bricks might hurt considerably less, since once you were dead pain sensations generally ceased. He swore. "Damn it. Mitchell, get me some clothes, now."

"Don't shoot the messenger, Daniel." Cam held up his hands in defense, but nodded to the attentive nurse standing nearby to respond to Daniel's demand.

"What happened and who's been notified." Daniel's voice was even, but the question was more of an order than a request for information. The nurse returned with a pair of green BDUs which he quickly changed into as Mitchell gave him the lowdown.

"The neighbors called in a burglary last night, but for some reason word didn't reach here until this morning, only about 20 minutes ago. According to the cops, the kitchen and living room are a mess, but none of the electronic equipment was taken, so robbery wasn't the primary motive. There was only one little spot of blood in the kitchen…."

"Clearly this was a targeted kidnapping." The archeologist restrained his anger and fear and channeled it into calm efficiency and reason, but his emotions were revealed by his clipped tone. Getting upset wouldn't help Cordelia or Cassandra, and he needed to turn all his energy to finding them.

The thought that his daughter and adopted niece had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time never even crossed his mind. He'd lost count of the time he or one of his teammates had been kidnapped or captured by the enemy for leverage. It wasn't leaping to conclusions when it was simply a fact of life. He took off his glasses and held a hand to his eyes for a moment. "Clearly this was an attack on me, considering it was my house they hit."

"Great. So all we gotta do is figure out which bad guy you pissed off enough to want this degree of revenge." Mitchell paused for a moment in thought.

"The Orii wouldn't be this subtle, they'd have come in with their staffs glowing, proclaiming the way of Origin at the top of their voices. As far as enemies go, there might be some rogue NID agents out there after SGC blood of any sort."

"Better start making a list of your enemies. Start with those who're likely to be in this corner of the galaxy."

Daniel snorted. "A shorter list would be those who _don't_ have the resources to pull this off." He and the newest member of SG-1 left the infirmary discussing the most likely culprits of this latest attack, all the while fighting down the panic, pain, and nausea roiling through his entire system.

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Cordelia woke up and immediately regretted it. Her head throbbed in pain, and she pictured a large lump poking up from her head like in the cartoons, since that's what it felt like. Following this inane observation came the realization that she had no idea where she was, or what had happened since her last memories were of the Home Invasion. She opened her eyes to look around for Cassie and to get her bearings, but all she saw was a bronze colored floor two inches away from her face. It was then she discovered that she was tied up, hands bound behind her and feet as well, effectively limiting her motion to thrashing about helplessly.

Luckily there was no gag. "Cassie? Are you okay?" There was no response, and as Cordelia lifted her head a little ways to try and see the rest of her prison it became apparent that the other woman was missing. She rested her aching head on the smooth floor, which seemed to be made out of some sort of stone, and tried to gather her scattered thoughts. Some of those thoughts were currently running around screaming about being kidnapped in _America_, and how this sort of thing only happened to at-risk little kids, or political dissenters in South America. Another part, the cynical, bitter and oh-so worldly wise part of her 18 year old brain noted that this was just typical, the way her life went. No dad, mother dying of a tragic heart condition, her poor old grandparents having to move to a nursing home, and then the far too convenient car-crash and subsequent shaking up of her life. _Okay, 'Delia, pull yourself together. You're a big girl, start acting like it!_ Just like after she woke up in the hospital, she tried to evaluate the situation and come to a decision about her course of action. She got as far as "I'm tied up, I have no idea where I am or what happened to Cassie" before she couldn't hold onto the brave act anymore, and concentrated on stifling her sobs as she began to cry. Her arm hurt, a lot, and her head wasn't doing so well either, add to that the fact that she was tied up having been kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night, and she comforted herself with the fact she had every right to collapse into a watery mess.

A harsh voice penetrated the sounds of her breakdown, and she blinked her eyes rapidly to clear them of tears. "What do you want?" Though hoarse, her voice was more irritated than fearful. From fear, Cordelia had quickly moved on to anger. Anger at her own weakness, anger at the situation she was in, and anger that she was helpless to change anything about it. Through watery eyes, she could see the armored feet of the man who had just entered the small room, and noted that a door had appeared in the wall behind him, allowing more of what she guessed were guards to enter.

The man spoke in a harsh, guttural language that Cordelia had never heard before, though his intense stare did nothing to imply the words meant anything pleasant.

"I can't understand you." _And I don't really want to, either. I want to go home._ This was all too weird for her. The guards had strange outfits on, armored clearly, but armor that seemed to have been cobbled together with elements from different cultures. It seemed as though a Scottish designer had gotten together with a medieval knight to create some sort of chain-mail uniform complete with decorated breastplate and armored kilt. Not to mention the close-fitting metal helmets and odd tattoo-like markings on their foreheads.

Apparently, her comprehension was unnecessary, for the man who had spoken gestured to his men behind him, and from out in the corridor, a wave of movement revealed two more guards approaching. These two, however, bore between them something far more important than the tall staffs the rest carried.

"Cassie!" She could feel the waterworks about to start up again. Her newfound "cousin" hung limply, head bent forward over her chest as the guards pulled her into the room. There was an exchange between the apparent leader and the two flunkies, and then Cassandra was unceremoniously dropped to lie beside Cordelia on the golden floor. Delia winced at the 'thump' Cassie's body made, and she maneuvered her body around as best she could to look at her. "Cassie, Cassandra, are you okay? Can you talk?" As far as she could see, there was no blood though a few ugly-looking bruises were apparent on the med. student's face.

Cassandra opened her eyes slowly and attempted a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Delia." She said, but her voice was barely more than a whisper and had Cordelia been a child who'd never heard the word "lie" she still wouldn't have believed her friend.

"Sure." She agreed sarcastically, trying to find some small measure of humor in their situation. "You're fine, and I'm the Queen of England."

"No." From behind the ranks of guards came an even more outlandishly dressed man with black hair and deeply tan skin. His eyes flashed dramatically as he pronounced in an unnaturally deep voice, "You are Cordelia Silverglade, and I am your Lord and your God."

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There was a pause as Cordelia absorbed this. The tears dried, forgotten on her cheeks, and her attention was entirely diverted from the pain coming from her limbs and head. "You don't look like Jesus." Her mouth moved without conscious thought.

Cassie snorted in amusement and then winced in pain at the movement. A lovely black eye was beginning to make itself known, and there was a small trickle of blood at the edge of one nostril. "Well, he looks like he's from the right area of the world, give or take a few hundred miles."

Delia blushed, she honestly hadn't meant for that to slip out, it was only her first impression! She couldn't be held accountable for what she said under these circumstances! "He doesn't have a beard." Her protest sounded weak, even to her ears. "And besides, from what I remember of Grandma's impromptu Sunday School lessons, Jesus wasn't big into kidnapping and beating up people!"

Cassie quickly discovered laughing wasn't a good idea. She groaned and instinctively curled into a fetal position to lessen the pain, taking measured breaths to keep from crying out.

"What did you do to her? Why?" Cordelia demanded angrily of the self-proclaimed Lord and his cronies. The fear and despair she had felt only moments ago gave way in the face of righteous indignation and a fierce protective instinct groomed by growing up the child of a single parent reared its head in defense of her new family, Daniel's adopted niece.

"Lord Shesmu will reveal his reasons in his own time." Whereas the overdressed man's English was oddly accented, this voice spoke the language as though he was born to it. Which, it soon became apparent, he was.

Cordelia was once again caught off guard. She knew that voice! Her mind raced furiously, and she had what could only be described as a small flashback to the elevator ride down into Cheyenne Mountain to visit Daniel back when all of this madness had begun.

_Absently, she wondered if the elevator ride was longer than the one that went up to the Space Needle in Seattle, WA. In junior high one of her close friends had gone there to visit relatives, and had raved about the Space Needle for weeks afterward. Of course, this friend believed that Men in Black was actually a documentary, and wouldn't shut up about how the top of the Space Needle was actually an abandoned UFO. After Cordelia's mom had died she'd fallen out of touch with him, and this was the first time in many years that she'd thought of him._

A tall, thin figure emerged from the corridor and stood slightly behind the leader. A mop of brown shaggy hair did not quite obscure the bright blue eyes which took in Cordelia's bound form and Cassandra's beaten one without alarm, but they did brighten in recognition when they met Cordelia's gaze.

"Will Hamel! What the hell are you doing here?"

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_**Several Weeks Earlier:**_

Will Hamel stared in awe at the small, intricately designed piece of computer technology. It was only the size of a postage stamp, yet it was the best birthday present he could have ever asked for. He made a mental note to write an extra nice thank-you to his cousin for this, (it would make up for his failure to write in response to the last five birthday gifts, that's how good it would be!) and turned his attention to the mess covering the table in front of him. It looked like the inner workings of a computer, a clock radio, and possibly some bits of a toaster thrown in because that's exactly what it was. Will had a gift for looking at objects and being able to see how they could be used, potentially, for contacting extra-terrestrials. This had led to some interesting tree-house designs growing up, not to mention the Lego fiasco. (He was only eight at the time, and it's not like his mom really needed the phone in the den that much. Or the hairdryer. And she certainly had no use for the sewing machine.) Unfortunately, to date, none of his inventions had been successful. His great breakthrough had turned out only to be picking up the television signal from across the street, not from Jupiter, as he'd hoped.

But now, with the tiny piece of technology held carefully by tweezers in his left hand, he knew he would finally be able to build the perfect communication devise, and finally initiate first contact with a species from the stars.

The minor goa'uld lord Shesmu was out for revenge. His liege lord Osiris was killed by SG-1. That is, Osiris was indirectly destroyed by SG-1, but Shesmu held Daniel personally responsible. (Reality doesn't matter all that much when you consider yourself a god). When Shesmu's First Prime came to report they had intercepted a taur'i message, the god decided it was a sign that the time for him to avenge his master had come. "What does the message say?" He demanded.

"It is from a young male taur'i who proclaims that he wishes to converse with any 'extraterrestrials' who may be listening. It is my belief that this human does not realize his people have been traveling the galaxy interfering with your Exaltedness' affairs for some time."

Gods do not roll their eyes. Even so, the goa'uld lord felt an intense wave of irritation course through him. "Then why have you brought this matter before me?"

"We intercepted his message, thinking it may be from Stargate Command. Unfortunately his device was such that it recognized the interception as a response. We don't know what kind of technology he's using, it's unlike anything the taur'i have used before. Somehow it was able to use our own technology to allow two-way visual communication."

Shesmu stared coldly at the head of his jaffa forces.

"He saw us, your Lordship. He began talking and we were unable to interrupt."

Gods also do not put their heads in their hands in disbelief at the incompetence of their minions. Shesmu's eyes flashed, and the flare was echoed by the hand-device he began to use on his First Prime. "How it is you rose to become my First Prime is utterly beyond my comprehension at this moment." His unnaturally deep voice was calm, in sharp contrast to the agonized screams of the jaffa being tortured at his feet. The goa'uld turned to one of the guards standing emotionlessly beside his throne. "You, fetch Dendore. He has just been promoted."

Although Shesmu had the outlines of a plan to destroy Daniel Jackson, it was the bizarre, one-in-a-hundred thousandth of a chance communication with the Earth child that put the plan into actual movement. The taur'i youngling, upon receiving confirmation that he was speaking to beings from another world, immediately started babbling on about how it was so cool that there were real aliens. And just as Shesmu gave the order to have him killed (beam down a Jaffa or two, with the stolen Asgard technology Lord Osiris had used in the past), he heard the kid mention a "Dr. Daniel Jackson." Turns out this kid had done lots of on-line research about anything alien related, and had come across Daniel's early work, which seemed perfectly logical and sane to him.

"What do you know of this 'Daniel Jackson'?" The goa'uld demanded, his eyes flashing imperiously at the young human standing before him. (They'd brought him aboard rather than risk their long-range communication being detected.)

"Um, well, I've read everything I can find about him, but since he dropped off the map about ten years ago, there's not all that much I can tell you. He was a respected archeologist, well Egyptologist primarily, and linguist before he was laughed out of academia for hypothesizing that the ancient pyramids were built as landing pads for alien space-craft." The teenager held up a hand, his blue eyes bright with an excitement that bordered on the fevered. "And here you are! Dr. Jackson must have been right! Although, how come you don't use the pyramids, since they were built for you?" He caught himself. "Or, maybe you guys are _different_ aliens, and the pyramids were built for a different race. Maybe you scared them off! Rival alien powers, duking it out for the fate of the earth! Awesome! Aw man, wait till 'Delia hears this! She _laughed_ in my face when I tried to tell her about the Space Needle in Seattle." He leaned forward conspiratorially. "She thinks it's just a funky shaped building, but come on, it's so obvious it's actually a UFO that fell to earth, and had to be hastily disguised." Even though the incident had occurred many years ago, before they'd even entered high school, he still felt the pain of the rejection sharply. He had trusted her with a secret, with information that was very important to him, and she had completely disregarded it and made it into a joke.

The goa'uld lord had faced many brave warriors who had remained defiant to their deaths, he had faced cowards who begged and pleaded to be spared. He had seen all reactions to his intimidating presence… expect this one. This taur'i _child_ seemed to be completely without fear, or sense, and had rattled on without ceasing even for breath, it seemed! He motioned his guards forward and they circled the earthling, escorting him to the prison where he would remain until Lord Shesmu had decided what useful function he may perform.

The kid hadn't shut up yet. "….I mean, considering Dr. Jackson's actually her _dad_; she'll have no choice but to believe me! I totally couldn't believe it when I saw Leia's Facebook post to Catherine, but then Mel said the same thing! Honestly, the odds of me knowing the _daughter_ of one of the foremost credible sources of information about extra-terrestrials-"

Lord Shesmu stopped so suddenly his guards almost ran into him. Luckily, the managed to come up short as well. The last pair of guards who had brushed up against their god's presence had been blessed, and had died within four days of the incident rather than the normal eight. "Daniel Jackson, of the taur'i, has offspring? Female offspring?"

Somewhere in the back of the boy's over-stimulated brain, a tiny siren began to wail in alarm. "Offspring? Yeah, Cordelia Silverglade. She just found out like three months ago or something. She was raised by her mom, uh, you know, female …parent." He realized that the aliens probably hadn't understood most of what he'd just said…. And then it finally sunk in. "You guys know Dr. Jackson? But if you've met him… then that means aliens have been in contact with humans! And no one knows about it!" He clutched at his hair in the moment of revelation, shocked almost beyond coherency. "But! How- When- I mean, why didn't I know about this!" he wailed. It had been his secret dream, told to no one but the stuffed porcupine he'd gotten for his seventh birthday; He, William Alexander Hamel, would be the first human being to make contact with beings from the stars. And now it was gone. Shattered into a million pieces, scattered like the stars throughout the inky blackness of infinity.

Shesmu made a decision. "You will tell me everything about Daniel Jackson and his daughter. Where to find them, how to get to them, every detail I can wring from your pathetic little mind."

Will got the distinct impression that these aliens did not want to find Dr. Jackson in order to congratulate him on having his theories proved correct. In fact, the impression he was getting was rather malign… "Why? What are you going to do to them?" Just because he'd had his dreams crushed by Dr. Jackson didn't mean he wished the man any harm. And it wasn't as though Cordelia had intentionally humiliated him by laughing at his theories.

"We are in need of a Queen." The goa'uld said after a slight pause. The truth was quite the opposite, he had no desire to share his power with anyone, but he did desire to see the human's reaction to this preposition. Also, it would make an excellent threat to use against Daniel Jackson, in light of how much it would pain the archeologist to lose his daughter the same way he lost his wife. "The last one to fulfill that position has been gone many years."

Dense, maybe. A little thick when it came to relationships, sure. But Will wasn't stupid. "Wait a sec, you're going to offer Cordelia a _royal position?_ She doesn't even care about aliens! All she cared about was hanging out with her stupid friends, and then she had all those idiot boy-toys who couldn't spell "salvation" if their lives depended on it!" He was rather proud of his wit, and hoped the aliens had a good enough grasp of the English language to get his little play on words. But he was still irritated. "Look, I can be your liaison to anyone you want, but you have to do something for me in return! That's the way bargains work!"

A sardonic expression crossed Lord Shesmu's face. "A bargain, is that what you wish?"

Will pulled himself up to his full height, all 5'10" of it, and stared at the alien with determination writ clear across his features. "Yes. I want an important position in your …government, hierarchy, whatever you call it, and complete access to your records. In return, I will give you all the information you want about Dr. Daniel Jackson and Cordelia Silverglade. The only condition is that you must swear not to kill either one of them, or harm the planet in anyway. Do we have a deal?" Now he was nervous. He'd never made a bargain with aliens before, and desperately hoped he hadn't left out anything vital. He had mentioned they weren't to be killed, right? Self-serving he may be, but he wasn't a bad person, and had no wish to have anyone's death on his conscience.

The false god bowed his head, sealing the deal. "We have a bargain. My slaves will fetch some refreshments for us, and then we will begin."

Nodding nervously, Will followed the guards through the corridors, his tongue from which words had flowed so freely from before, now had to work to restore moisture to his suddenly dry mouth. "My name is Will Hamel, and I'm from the United States of America, Earth."

"And I am Shesmu, Lord of the Blood, and Avenger of Osiris. You are lucky I happened across your primitive communication, as I have a feeling this 'bargain' will yield great rewards." _For me. _He added silently.


	19. Clues Come Together

Author's Note:I am SO sorry how long overdue this update is. I apologize to everyone who's been waiting, and I hope to have more updates to follow! (However, I now have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History, and am working on my Masters!)

Enjoy!

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"Hello, Cordelia. It's been awhile. How's things working out with your dad?" Will's voice was calm, but under the circumstances Cordelia reacted as though he had started speaking another language.

Before 'Delia could past her shock, Cassandra interjected herself into the conversation. "I don't know what they've offered you, but please, help us! Will, is it? You have to believe me, the goa'uld will use you and then destroy you without a second thought."

Will turned his gaze to Cassie's bruised face. "Lord Shesmu has spared your life, even though you have no useful information for us." The odd look in his eyes seemed to flicker, momentarily sharpening into focus. "Besides," he added proudly. "I'm the first human being these aliens have made a deal with. It's an historic moment, and I know they'll respect that."

She knew he'd always been a bit out there, but Cordelia had no idea Will was this deluded! "What are you talking about Will? Aliens are little green men with big eyes, these guys are just wack-jobs who need to be arrested! Why are you helping them kidnap us?"

"Actually, they're gray." Cassie corrected quietly. Cordelia turned to look at her, as best she could, sharply. "What?"

Before Cassandra could explain about the Asgard, Lord Shesmu interrupted. "What is it with you taur'i and the incessant need to hear your own voices!" He had prepared a great speech with which to instill fear and respect into Daniel Jackson's offspring, but the girl barely paid attention to him! His eyes flashed in irritation. "Your father destroyed my liege lord Osiris, and now the time for reckoning is upon us. He will experience great pain and know loss to a degree that is fitting for one who dared to raise a hand against a god!"

Cassandra's protective instincts were fully engaged as she did her best to distract the goa'uld from Cordelia. "The Stargate program has made some incredible advances since the last System Lord incursion, Shesmu. They've probably already been alerted of your presence in orbit." Also, when she was concentrating on speaking clearly and persuasively, she could ignore some of the throbbing pain that was coursing through her body. Not that her arguments would do any good. Cassandra didn't remember much from the first time she saw SG-1, after her entire planet had been wiped out by Nirrti's plague. Even when she had lived it, the first few hours felt like a bad dream that she couldn't wake up from. But her first crystal clear memory was of the pain on Sam's face as she left Cassandra alone in a room so that when the naquida bomb inside of her blew, the girl would be the only casualty. The alien who responsible for the bomb, who was willing to use an innocent child as a weapon of mass destruction, was of the same species as the monster who know threatened to hurt Daniel's family. Reasoning with him was about as useful as trying to convince a snowstorm that it didn't really want to freeze you to death. But, if you found yourself in a snow-storm, raging against it was better than just lying down waiting to die. "You do realize you're going after the people who are responsible for _decimating_ the goa'uld population in the Milky Way Galaxy, what makes you think you have even the slightest chance of getting away with this?"

Shesmu responded wordlessy. Before Cassandra had time to brace herself, an orange beam of light shot from the bronze device on the goa'uld's outstretched hand and plunged into her forehead. She screamed in pain, and collapsed, unconscious as the hand device was shut off.

Taken by surprise, Cordelia almost screamed with her, but she bit back the shriek before it escaped her throat. She felt tears gather at her eyes again, but she refused to acknowledge them. "Stop it, please!" Anger warred with confusion. "What was she talking about? Will? Why are you helping these guys?" She glared at the man responsible for her friend's pain. "What did you do to her?" She could see Cassie's chest rise and fall with her pained breathing so she was still alive, but she couldn't understand what had happened. What was that orange-glowy thing and why had it hurt Cassie so much?

"Cordelia," Will sighed in exasperation. She'd never been the best student when they were in school together, and it seems her listening skills had not improved since then. "Lord Shesmu has explained all of this. Your father is responsible for the destruction of Shesmu's master. In the hierarchy of their society, which is kind of feudal, from what I've gathered so far, that means he has the right to extract revenge."

'Delia laughed. She couldn't help herself, and she distinctly heard a note of hysteria in her voice as she replied. "My dad's an _archeologist!_ He's a geek! His house is practically a museum! He helps the Air Force as a scientific and cultural _advisor_!"

Will frowned. "This is an alien race, a completely new culture! Your father, if he's actually such a scholar as you believe, should realize that! He above all people should recognize the importance of respecting their cultural traditions. Shesmu must complete his task to repay the blood debt incurred by the death of Osiris."

"Are you hearing yourself?" Her voice rose up an octave higher than normal. "Will, please. We can get you help. I'm sorry I was rude to you when we were younger and you had all those bizarre stories about aliens. But you have to understand, this isn't one of your stories! Cassie is hurt, and this weirdo dressed in old prom decorations is not some mythological figure bent on restoring the honor of his tribe or whatever!" Hysteria hadn't quite taken over, but it had a pretty good foothold in Cordelia's mind at the moment, and allowed her to notice the really hideous clash of colors and styles that made up Shesmu's wardrobe. Draping may have been classy at one point, but when the fabric looked like it had been dunked in gold sequins and fringed with feathers, something had gone terribly awry. The kilt was not quite as garish, being of a more subtle silver tone, but the sandals seemed to have been made of some metal cast to look like lion paws. Unfortunately the resulting effect was not quite the intimidating spectacle it probably intended to be, and more than anything else reminded Cordelia of the fuzzy slippers Mel had bought when the Lion King first came out. A strangled laugh escaped her throat. "Please, just let us go!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Will knew his first-contact situation had gone terribly wrong, but he refused to let the feelings of inferiority that had followed him throughout his life destroy this chance at greatness! He may not be one-hundred percent of this Lord Shesmu guy, but he was damn well going to see it through. Now let his Grandfather call him a "quitter" in that derogatory tone. Just because he wasn't an Air Force officer like his cousin…. "I'm sorry, Cordelia, that you had to get involved with all of this." He glanced quickly at the other young woman, trying not to notice her bloody nose and bruised features. Swallowing hard, he attempted to imitate his new master's poise, focusing on the fame and fortune he had been promised. "But there was no other way. Your fate is now in the hands of Lord Shesmu."

The goa'uld overlord smiled, or at least turned the ends of his mouth upwards in an horrible approximation of the expression. "Your friend speaks truth. But the time for speaking is through." He nodded to his guards. "Bring them both."

_****_

"Okay, here's a list I've compiled of system lords who are still unaccounted for and may have a vendetta and the resources to carry out an attack on me." Daniel slid the folder across the briefing room table to General Landry. "Our contacts with the Asgard report no obvious unrest in their region, and Sam's still trying to get ahold of the Tok'ra." He rubbed his eyes wearily. It had been six hours since he'd gotten the message in the infirmary, and they still had nothing on the whereabouts of Delia or Cassie. And to make matters that much more fun, not only was his burn still hurting, he also was getting a captain of a headache that was soon going to be promoted to major.

"Anything on the earth angle?"

"Well, sir, that's where it gets interesting." Mitchell walked into the room just at that moment, a cup of coffee in one hand and a thick file in the other. He handed the coffee to Daniel, who sipped it gratefully, and slid into the seat next to him.

General Landry leaned forward. "I thought you said you were going to talk to your contacts on P3X-408? O'Neill already looked into a possible NID connection."

Mitchell waved a hand, brushing aside the General's questions. "Teal'c and Vala are off-world seeing if there's any rumors going around about kidnapped taur'i, and Teal'c said he'd talk to the Jaffa. This," he pointed to the file he'd brought in, "is a new earth angle."

"There's nothing to suggest any of my human enemies had anything to do with this. No one even knows Cordelia is related to me, outside this base, and they would have no reason to hit my house since they would know all SGC files would be kept secure on base." The coffee helped a little, but what Daniel really needed right now was a goa'uld sarcophogus. He winced internally even as he thought it. Though it had been years since he'd become addicted to the advanced technology and had nearly lost himself to it, at times like these he almost wished he could get his hands on it again for that feeling of total calm, control, and physical well-being. He hadn't had cravings like this since, well, since the last time they'd almost lost Jack. He tried to get his mind back on track, and closed his eyes to better concentrate. "A goa'uld has infiltrated my home before, and alien enemies would not be aware of military protocol and security issues that make me keep all my work here."

"Exactly." Mitchell flipped open the folder and drew out a picture of Cordelia and her friends from high school.

"What?" Daniel leaned forward in confusion, and grabbed the photo. "Where did you get this?"

"Sam got it, actually, she's working the computer angle, and noticed that Cordelia has an active Facebook page."

"So? A lot of young people do. More and more people our age are also using it to network or keep in touch with old friends. Even Jack was thinking about getting one. But that was only because someone told him you could play Super Mario on it." The archeologist creased his brow in confusion. "We've already established that there was no communication detected by our satellites prior to the kidnapping. Likewise, there was no signs of any ring activity to indicate goa'uld had used an Alkesh or another ship to take the girls." As he listed the alternatives they'd already ruled out, he ticked them off on his fingers. "No forensic evidence was found at the scene, except some non-descript black polyester fibers, and the neighbors didn't see or hear anything useful."

"Just hear me out." A placating hand stemmed the flow. "Cordelia's friends were talking about her newly discovered father. So, anyone who has a facebook account could potentially make the connection. Now we know why they hit your house, and why now, rather than a few months earlier."

General Landry flipped through the file, still skeptical. "That's presuming a human enemy, Mitchell, and we still have no indication of the kidnapper's species."

But Daniel had sat upright, his mind working furiously. "They took Cordelia to get to me, that much is obvious. But how would they even know about her, unless they had some human connection? Cam's got a point, General. Instead of looking out there for an enemy, maybe we should start looking a little closer to home." He pulled his list of System Lords back across the table, and opened the folder hastily. "We should concentrate on finding out if any of these goa'uld have a connection to earth besides us. They would have to have some way of contacting their agent, and if we can track that…"

Mitchell grinned. "Way ahead of you Jackson, for once. Remember our trouble with the Ba'al clones?"

General Landry and Daniel frowned in unison. The General answered for both of them. "Of course, though I for one would rather not. What's your point?"

"Some of them escaped, and not by Stargate. I've got a hunch our kidnappers arrived by ship, somehow slipping through our satellite detection system."

"You mean like Marty's pals." Daniel referred to a TV producing, humanoid extraterrestrial the SGC had dealt with in the past, who had lived on earth unaware of his origin for many years. The mind behind Wormhole X-Treme! was one of the odder allies SG-1 had made, but his people had come to earth in a spaceship that remained undetected for years.

"Something like that, sure."

"If you're right, this could be good news." Landry glanced at Daniel. "If the intent of the kidnapping is to manipulate Dr. Jackson, then there's a good chance the ship is close by." He stood up, indicating the meeting was over and he was ready to give some orders. Mitchell automatically got to his feet as well, though Daniel stayed seated. "Mitchell, I want you and Carter to see what you can do about boosting our sensors. If there's a ship out there, I want it found. Daniel, see what you can find out about any goa'uld and their human contacts. Let's see if this isn't part of a pattern somewhere."


End file.
